This scroll mixed media painting of flora and fauna is a departure from Umibaizurah Mahir@Ismail’s quirky ceramic concoctions. The top part is reduced to a jigsaw of what looks like a horse head silhouette in different flat colours, some overlapping, and the bottom half is reserved to an image of a bouquet of faint pink roses with white showers. While this is a fine distraction for her, it enables her to explore painterly forms and colours on a flat surface apart from some personal issues. It’s been some time since ceramists like Ham Rabeah Kamarun broke into the scene with her raku firing, and Umibaizurah Mahir@Ismail represents a new breed of contemporary ceramists affording fresh vigour to the medium. Her first solo, Hybrid, of whimsical wheelie ceramics, was held at the Wei-Ling Gallery in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur, in 2009, followed by Tag, at Wei-Ling’s Garden Malls Contemporary Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, in 2012. In 2016, she came up with a hugely impressive exhibition of ceramics and paintings, including mixed media collage, at The EDGE Gallery, Kuala Lumpur. She had represented Malaysia in the 2000 Jakarta Ceramic Biennale, the 2011 Cheongju Craft Biennale and the 2009 Asia Ceramics Network, the last two in South Korea. She also took part in the Namyi Seom Ceramics Festival in Korea in 2002, and the Five and Tanah Timur exhibitions in Japan in 2010. She graduated with a Diploma in Education at the Universiti ITM in 1999, followed by a BFA in Ceramics in 2000. Her awards include 1st Prize in the Yayasan Warisan Johor art competition in 1999. She was the top 10 winners in the Young Contemporary Artists (Bakat Muda Sezaman) competition at the National Art Gallery in 2007, and the top 5 winners in the Yokoname City Sculpture competition in Japan in 2004 and she received the Singapore National Arts Council grant in 2005. Her ceramic, Untouchable VII (2009), was sold for a RM6,050 premium at the May 2012 Henry Butcher art auction.