Fancy Lee Kian Seng to use what looks like a Mafia mobster’s car in his lithograph print showing loosely the development of ‘transport’ in Malaysia, from the covered bullock cart, to the trishaw, and a roofless car made between 1930s and 1950s, one that was driven by the likes of Al Capone, John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson and Bonnie and Clyde. Marques like Ford, Buick, Cadillac and Studebaker with running boards or footboards fitted on the sidedoors where the hoodlums could stand on and fire at will with their tommy guns (Thompson submachine guns) as they cruised past their targeted victims. The work comes complete with his trademark shells and the national hibiscus flower. Kian Seng is one of the most consummate artists working in printmaking, batik, sculpture and painting.
From 3rd Prize in the Malayan Open art competition in 1964, Kian Seng has not stopped amassing laurels - 3rd (sculpture) and 3rd (mixed media) in the Salon Malaysia in 1968 and Major Awards in Painting and Graphics in the 1977 edition; Major Award Malaysian Landscapes 1972; Major Award in the Bakat Muda Sezaman 1975; culminating in the international Creation Award of Japan in 1993. He represented Malaysia in the 1984 Square Sculpture Symposium in Jakarta (Peace, Harmony and One) and the World Expo in Osaka in 1970. At home, his monumental sculptures include Vision 2020 and Millennium. He is also the pioneer of installation art in 1972, when it was not named as such yet.