Executed at a young age of 22 years old, the early paintings of Raja Shahriman exhibit imaginative sculptural forms. Although it was painted at the start of his career, the work’s bold experimentation of shapes and colours reflect stylistic sophistication. Raja Shahriman’s muscular figures are truly unique, exhibiting a sense of angst on the contradictions and paradox of the human condition. Raja Shahriman’s works cover the spectrum of Nature, Religion and Culture, and are all rooted in Malayness, first captured the imagination with his Killing Tools (1994) in the Killing Tools, Lalang and Warbox exhibition. He used metal scraps for linear anatomical constructs. He had his first solo, Gerak Tempur, in 1996. He enrolled as a Painting major at the Mara Institute of Technology but switched to Sculpture in the fifth semester, graduating in 1990. In 1994, after three years of teaching at the Malaysian Institute of Art (MIA), he returned to his hometown Kuala Kangsar. He was honoured with a solo show at Galeri Petronas in 2009, titled Rhythm Of The 21st Century - Monologues Of Raja Shahriman. His latest solo Lok was held at National Art Gallery Malaysia from December 2019 to March 2020.