Art is often described as a social commentary. The FLUX Exhibition, which is one of London’s leading exhibitions aimed at discovering the most talented, dynamic painters, sculptors, and performing artists is where some of the most powerful and persuasive art is showcased yearly. Amongst them this year is our very own Kuala Lumpur-based, Peisy Ting.
Eve Writes | 11 March 2019
Life & Culture : Women In Art
Growing up in a multi-ethnic Malaysia, Peisy claimed she did not set out to be an artist.
Yet, her hidden passion for art and design has actually led her to UK where she graduated in Visual Communications in 1999. For more than a decade she worked as a designer, creative director and consultant in various international advertising agencies.
Naturally, talents in Creative Agencies are known to create works that act as windows, providing insight and focus on complex subjects, offering unique interpretations, and raising provocative questions for the viewer.
The experience perhaps ignited something in her for she took the plunge in exiting her career to concentrate on her artistic skills.
Even though she claimed she was never a “serious artist” before she left the advertising world, Peisy has always been comfortable with a paintbrush and has in fact created several artworks in her time. While previously, it may just be her exploration of colors and shapes, these artworks served as escapism and only to be displayed in her home. As expressed by herself on her website, becoming an artist was not something she thought would be her next career.
In 2016, Peisy dedicated her time to produce her first series of contemporary art. The inspiration derived from a combination of her experience in a multicultural upbringing. This experience and skills are articulately translated in her work where they are a cornucopia of colors, strokes, shapes, and expressions – all working and reaching out to each other to create stunning and visually stimulating works of art.
Since becoming a full-time artist, she has done four previous exhibitions, the most recent being Painting From The Heart: Art For Good, a group exhibit held in BSC Shopping Centre, Bangsar on 20 February 2019. This exhibition, organized by the Society for the Severely Mentally Handicapped Malaysia (SSMH), is a charity art exhibition to raise funds and further awareness of the Society’s initiatives.
Through her work, Peisy is looking to effectively invoke innate experience from the observer through simple and bold compositions.
Her ‘Artist Statement’ described her work as "being in a continuous state of evolution where she balances intention and intuition". If one takes a look at Peisy’s work, it’s astounding how one is taken for a rollercoaster ride of emotions and thoughts where her paintings can almost always incite different feelings each time a viewer looks at it.
Mask of Solitude - Triptych
There’s always something to discover, something to ponder, and definitely something to admire.
Naturally driven by personal convictions, her body of work acts as reflectors, translators, and mediators of societal issues, including gender equality, cultural and social identity, environmental awareness and globalization. It is perhaps the eye she refined in her years working as an Art Director. Having the experience to visually stimulate her viewers through advertising, Peisy seems to effortlessly transfer that skill to her paintings, each allowing itself to emote and invoke feelings.
"I believe art is a universal language and a celebration of humanity, which is why I use abstract elements as a universal communicators of joy, sorrow, strength, and vulnerability; conflict and peace.
Fractured Sanity - Triptych | Mixed media acrylic triptych
Conscious Interlude | Mixed media acrylic on stretched canvas
New World Order
How the world may look like in the next millennia is reflected in a singular flag that represents all humanity -
one world, one nation, one love.
Shadow of Desire
Do we trust our motives when approaching the unknown? Is there enough strength behind one's yearning to reveal our true feelings?
Shutters of Awakening
Darkness and intransigence may sometimes block our views and obscure our thoughts. However, it takes conscious and sustained effort to understand the intended message insofar that our minds may eventually be enlightened.
As one of About Eve’s favorite Women In Art, we believe Peisy is destined to make Malaysians proud. While her strokes and signature are unmistakable, we believe there’s still so much more in Peisy that she has yet to let out. Each of her work is a testament of how much she values growth and learning so we’re always excited to see what she is going to produce next.
The FLUX Exhibition starts this week on 17th March. Learn more by visiting their website here.
About Eve stole a minute of Peisy’s time to have some fun with these questions.
Check it out and learn more about this edgy and resilient artist!
1. What is your main inspiration?
Everything - from an image to a song, a movie scene, a pattern of a bug, a feeling...
2. Best way to decompress and destress?
Muay Thai :-)
3. If you could switch lives with someone for a day who would it be?
A rockstar!
4. What makes you smile the most?
Cats
5. If you could meet one artist, from past o present, who would it be?
Frida Kahlo
6. Who do you admire?
Maya Angelou
7. What is the skill still unmastered?
Watercolor, woodworking
8. What's your favorite book of all time?
Shantaram by Gregory, David Roberts
A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini
9. What's the priciest thing you've ever splurged on?
A Tiffany
10. What’s your favorite ice-cream?
Rum & Raisin
11. To be or not to be...?
To be fearless. (Try) not to be a b**ch
12. If your life is a song, what song would it be?
Rock You Like A Hurricane, Scorpions
13. Describe yourself in three words.
Bad ass. I can't think of other two!
14. What is the best thing that happened to you so far this year?
The opportunity to participate in group exhibition in London (also the scariest!)
15. What is something you can't live without?
Coffee, and my phone
16. What's your kind of music?
Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, Nirvana, Oasis..
I'm really the Rock kind of girl ;-)
17. What do you usually order in Starbucks (or your favorite cafe) ?
Piccolo/Espresso (Doubleshot!)
18. What's your favorite artwork?
Judith and the Head of Holofernes, Gustav Klimit
19. Whose artwork would you like to have in your home?
Judith and the Head of Holofernes
20. What artwork truly moved you?
Judith and the Head of Holofernes
21. Tea or coffee?
Definitely coffee
22. Morning or night?
Night
23. Love is...
Everywhere
24. Your idea of happiness.
Frozen margarita by the beach
