Ernst & Young Asean Art Outreach, To The Sea (Ernst & Young Solutions LLP, 2012), p.17
Description
Contemporary artist Kow Leong Kiang is known for his romantic portrayals of figures placed in natural surroundings. Reminiscent of a daydream, To The Sea 6 is executed in the artist's distinctive refined style, enhanced with a delicate colouration. The artist places emphasis on the natural expression of the female figure, enhanced by the gentle sea breeze. He employed fluid brushwork of varying strokes smoothly layered across the canvas, creating a luminous effect emanating from within, harmonised with the serene landscapes of the East Coast. His first solo in Singapore titled To The Sea was presented by Ernst & Young Asean Art Outreach in 2012.
Kow Leong Kiang stamped his class when he won the highly coveted Grand Prize in the Philip Morris Asean Art Award, the only Malaysian to have done so, in the finals in Vietnam in 1998, with his work called Mr. Foreign Speculator, Stop Damaging Our Country, which established him as a major figurative artist. He graduated from the Kuala Lumpur College of Art in 1991 and showed early promise when he won the Minor Award in the Young Contemporary Artists competition in 1992 and the National Day Art Competition in Kuala Lumpur. He was awarded the Freeman Foundation Asian Artist fellowship for a two-month artist's residency at the Vermont Studio Centre in the United States in 2004. He held his solo exhibition To The Sea at Ernst and Young Gallery in Singapore in August 2012 under the Asia Outreach Programme. A member of the provocative F Klub, Kow Leong Kiang created sensuous figurative images alongside his peers Bayu Utomo Radjikin, Shia Yih-Yiing, Marvin Chan, Chong Ai Lei, Gan Chin Lee and Chin Kong Yee with an exhibition titled Scent Of Bali upon returning from an inspirational trip to Bali in 2013. He also participated in the group show Art@Whiteaways, a special project exhibition in conjunction with the Georgetown Festival in Penang the same year.