Description
It's distractedly fragmented with little parcels of different colours hitting one another mapped by the whitist areas and black tipsyingly descending lines. It has a dizzying array of colours – yellow, turquoise, blue, red, pink, green, black and white. This Movement work by Suzlee Ibrahim playing on rhythm and energy is believed to be at the tailend, though remnants have surfaced as late as 2009. The series titles are often give-aways, like Sahara, Turquoise, Monsoon, Meditation, Waterfalls and Gestures. Even then, Suzlee is not bound by constricted time bars, as his series often merrily overlaps, like this one with the Space Series (2005-2006). In his 30-year painting career, Suzlee has more than a dozen series of works, and counting. His Movement works can be traced back to as early as 1998, when he held a solo launching the series at the Shah Alam Gallery. Some of his solos are outside the country like in Dennark (Remise Academy, Brande) and Macedonia (Kicevo art colony). In 2010, he took part in the Tunisia Art Festival Workshop in Monastir.
It’s remarkable that Suzlee can keep up such a hectic painting repertoire and pace despite his devotion as an academician for 24 years since he taught foundation course at the Universiti ITM in 1993 and in recent years at the National Academy of Arts, Culture and Heritage, a.k.a Aswara). The full range of his works was evident in the Suzlee Ibrahim: 30 Years Journey mini-retrospective of sorts at The Art People Gallery in Klang, from July to September 2016. Showing mostly works in recent years, it marked his 30th solo over a 30-year period. He was awarded the Tokoh Seni Anugerah Citra Kencana UKM in 2011, the year he staged his Road to Sahara solo at the Asian Arts Museum in Universiti Malaya. His other awards include the Japan-Malaysia Art Friendship Ambassador (2007) and the Emaar Art Symposium Outstanding Creative Excellence Award, Dubai, United Arab Emirates (2005).
He also painted the longest painting titled The Poem, recognised by Malaysia Book of Records. With a charitable heart, he had also donated artworks to raise fund for the underprivileged through events like the Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix F1 Gala 2015 and the McMillan Woods Global Awards 2016.
The Sotheby’s Hong Kong April 2017 auction sale saw his work from the TTC Series sold for HKD 81,250.