Umibaizurah Mahir represents a new genre of contemporary ceramists bringing fresh ideas to the medium. In The Flower Planter, a young girl meanders in a natural landscape, while the right section contains an intricate porcelain sculpture of a child and a house. The white flower adorned on the girl’s head and the field of green grass with mountains in the distance raised the contrast of colours with great intensity. This work is one of the best examples of the combination of figures and landscape that the artist has greatly achieved. It’s been some time since ceramists like Ham Rabeah Kamarun broke into the scene with her raku firing, and Umibaizurah Mahir@Ismail represents a new breed of contemporary ceramists affording fresh vigour to the medium. Her first solo, Hybrid, of whimsical wheelie ceramics, was held at the Wei-Ling Gallery in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur, in 2009, followed by Tag, at Wei-Ling’s The Gardens Mall Contemporary Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, in 2012. In 2016, she came up with a hugely impressive exhibition of ceramics and paintings, including mixed media collage, at The Edge Galerie, Kuala Lumpur. She had represented Malaysia in the 2000 Jakarta Ceramic Biennale, the 2011 Cheongju Craft Biennale and the 2009 Asia Ceramics Network, the last two in South Korea. She also took part in the Namyi Seom Ceramics Festival in Korea in 2002, and the Five and Tanah Timur exhibitions in Japan in 2010. She graduated with a Diploma in Education at the Universiti ITM in 1999, followed by a BFA in Ceramics in 2000. Her awards include 1st Prize in the Yayasan Warisan Johor art competition in 1999. She was the top 10 winners in the Young Contemporary Artists (Bakat Muda Sezaman) competition at the National Art Gallery in 2007, and the top 5 winners in the Yokoname City Sculpture competition in Japan in 2004 and she received the Singapore National Arts Council grant in 2005.