From Hollow Man to Metal Man to Rain Man. That is the metamorphosis of sorts of Tan Chin Kuan’s apocryphal character who finds himself alienated and marginalised in today’s ‘ugly’ world where power, greed and manipulations are the key. Chin Kuan first captured the artworld’s imagination with his Hollow Man, who are not dissimilar to T.S. Eliot’s poetical Hollow Men, the lost souls in the aftermath of World War I. Chin Kuan uses the Hollow Man in his installations as a maligned martyr in society, full of angst, discriminated against, shorn of opportunities and prevented from finding and ‘freeing’ himself. Rainy Day reduces his suffering androgynous protagonist to the two-dimensional in a decidedly apocalyptic urban setting, but this time the rain acts as a catharsis, washing away his tears of deprivation. He said: “I am a blue prism, honest with myself and reflecting whatever I receive… My paintings always express anxiety resulting from confusion and struggle; creeping in silence and searching for justification.” Excerpts from an article by Zena Khan: "The audience’s first clue that they are looking at a painting that discusses the artist’s own emotions is the dead horse that lies across the bottom third of the canvas. Chin Kuan was born in the Chinese year of the horse and often utilizes it as a symbol when referring to himself and his reaction to his surroundings or events in his artwork. In Rainy Day, Chin Kuan’s dead horse describes his sense of being lost as an artist when he first moved to Seremban. He felt his artistic vision was sliding downhill, reflected by the death of the horse. Standing centrally in the canvas, just in front of the horse is a self-portrait of Chin Kuan. Despite the heavy rain and animal carcass behind him, and the slightly bowed head stance, the viewer is given the impression of the strength of the central figure and his desire to move forward and rise again artistically. Rainy Day is an emotional piece for Chin Kuan. The beginning of his new series of works, Chin Kuan has used it as an opportunity to create a personal narrative that more essentially acts as an introduction for the body of work he is currently producing. The focus here is to develop and perfect his medium, particularly the atmosphere of heavy rain permeating the entire canvas, in order to subsequently be capable of efficiently expressing the socio-political commentary his art is famous for." It’s a huge surprise that Tan Chin Kuan, one of the art superstars in the late 1980s and 1990s, is only just making his debut in this auction. His artworks are collected by art citadels in Japan and Singapore (his major work is exhibited inside National Gallery Singapore). Chin Kuan won the Major Award in the prestigious Young Contemporary Artists (Bakat Muda Sezaman) competition in 1989 and 1990 (Minor Award in 1988), and won the Minor Award in Salon Malaysia in 1991/1992. He took part in the 6th Asean Youth Painting Workshop in Brunei in 1988. He also had a solo in Japan (Fukuoka Art Museum) before he had his solo at home in Kuala Lumpur, at the Creative Centre in 1995 and the NN Gallery in March 1997. He was selected for the 3rd Asia Pacific Triennial in Brisbane in 1999 and his works were featured in the landmark New Art from Southeast Asia exhibition at several venues in Japan in 1992. He was also invited for the Gwangju Biennale, the Osaka Triennale and the ARX in Perth, and was an artist-in-residence at the Curtin University in Perth in 1992. He graduated from the Malaysian Institute of Art in 1987 and after teaching at the Saito Academy taught at his alma mater.