Like the bangsawan of old, the traditional Malay opera or theatre incorporating music and sometimes dance, Zulkifli Yusoff likes to couch the messages of his paintings with euphemisms or oblique parallel allusions. Here, he uses the appellations of three figures, or is it only two with the one on the left being something else? Arranged full-frontal, or centre-stage. What are they doing, twiddling their thumbs or discussing some world things or in some kind of altercations? You’ll never know, except with a teaser title, Busy Busy. Zulkifli Yusoff was a super nova when he won the Major Award of the Young Contemporary Artists competition in 1988 and 1989 (jointly) and which culminated with his clinching the totem Minister’s Grand Prize in the 1992 Salon Malaysia, apart from the 1st and 3rd Prizes for Sculpture. He taught at the Mara Institute of Technology for a few years before becoming Associate Professor at Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris in Tanjung Malim. For his educator’s role, he was awarded the National Academic Award (Visual Arts) in 2007. After graduating from ITM in 1989, he did his Masters at the Manchester Polytechnic, England in 1991. His major international exhibitions include the Venice Biennale (Modernities and Memories: Recent Works from the Islamic World) in 1997, 1st Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art in Brisbane in 1993, Seychelles Biennale in 1992, Singapore Biennale 2013, Art Stage Singapore 2013. As a team, he won 2nd Prize in the Sand Sculpture competition in Hong Kong in 1988. Another notable solo is the Negara Ku at the National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, in 2010.