A boy clad in only army camouflage pants is bending over, right palm pressed on the ground to stabilise while the other hand reaches far down to retrieve something. In three consecutive solo exhibitions, Rafiee Ghani uses the persona of his son to re-enact escapades and childhood games in the Great Outdoor as if reliving his own life journey through terrains inhospitable and least ventured. From The Storm Boy (2007) and Rainbow Warrior (2009) to the last of the ‘trilogy’ held at the 69 Gallery in Bukit Damansara, Kuala Lumpur (2012), Rafiee regales with flashes of the natural environment with its bountiful resources. But the blessed of the land can be depleted through wanton human destruction. The young protagonist obviously so used to urban creature comforts needs a survival kit of the jungle, with lessons in developing an affinity to Nature. Nature with its myriad fragments and mercurial moods gets fused into a gorgeous palette of Matissean colours, as the lad is wedged between a sense of order and chaos. Two Minor Awards of the Young Contemporary Artists (BMS) competition (1984 and 1985) and a Minor Award in the 1991 Salon Malaysia by Rafiee Ghani are the envy of his peers. He also won the Juror’s Choice award in the Malaysian Philip Morris Asean Art Award in 1994 and was placed 2nd in the Malaysia Art Open (MAO), also in 1994. Rafiee first studied at the De Vrije Academie Voor Bildeendie Kunst at the Hague, the Netherlands, in 1980, but did not complete. After his diploma at the Mara Institute of Technology, he graduated with Master’s (Fine Prints) from the Manchester Metropolitan University (Manchester Polytechnic) in Britain. Rafiee had also taught at the Universiti Mara Institue of Technology (1986-1988 and 1989-1990), and in the Seychelles from 1991-1993.