DASEIN FINE ART ALUMNI SWEPT AWARDS AT YOUNG COMTEMPORARIES 2019 BY THE NATIONAL ART GALLERY OF MALAYSIA

The award ceremony of the Young Contemporaries 2019 was held at the National Art Gallery with one grand-prize, five jury awards and one visitors’ choice award together with prizes totalling RM67,000.00 given out to seven selected winners. Dasein fine art alumni Wong Ming Hao and Lim Sin Peng bagged the jury awards and RM7,000.00 cash prize respectively while Joy Ng Mei Lok’s installation art won the visitors’ choice award and RM2,000.00 cash prize.

Caption: Wong Ming Hao won the Jury Awards and RM7,000 cash prize for his emotion-evoking figurative paintings.

The National Art Gallery of Malaysia has been organising the Young Contemporaries (Bakat Muda Sezaman), the most prestigious art competition in the country to recognise young, talented local artists under the age of 40 for every two years since it was first introduced in 1974. In 2019, a total of 39 individual and group of artists are shortlisted for the Young Contemporaries 2019 awards, out of which 15 nominated candidates including Wong Sam Lin, Wong Ming Hao, Lau Pik Yen, Ho Mei Kei, Joy Ng Mei Lok, Leong How Yi, Tiong Chai Heing, Tan Yi Ching, Lee Mok Yee, Lim Sin Peng, Koo Yean Ni, Ong Cai Bin, Tan Siao Xuan, Choo Yan Xin and Mesita Jee-Mae are alumni of Dasein Academy of Art’s fine art program. 

Caption: Lim Sin Peng won the Jury Awards and RM7,000 cash prize with her works inspired by ways of communication with the blind community. 

In 2019 alone, Dasein Fine Art students, alumni and lecturers participated in over 80 exhibitions and showcases in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Japan, United Kingdom and more. 

Artists today are living in an integrated cultural and social landscape surrounded by constant enquiries and debates of how art should be perceived. Insightful artists are becoming increasingly vital in inspiring the world by capturing and transforming the ordinary into extraordinary. With this in mind, the Dasein fine art program has been designed to develop one's aesthetic senses and skills. You will explore from traditional painting techniques, art history to installation art, and eventually advance into developing individual ideas toward original masterpieces. The course frequently holds exhibitions to cultivate art appreciation and initiate dialog between the artists and the public, giving you an open mind when the artwork elicits food for thought in the eyes of the beholder.