Soe Yu Nwe, Pandemic Universe: Mirrored Fragmented, 2020, Ink, watercolor, color pencil, pastel and silver leaf on paper, 27.9 x 27.9 cm

Essentialist Images is an exhibition of contemporary Burmese art, and its oscillation between the static past and the persistently intrusive present.

While the ubiquitous panoply of traditionally-derived images that dominate popular forms of Burmese art – from monks to landscapes – are absent here, the work in this exhibition foreground other familiar tropes that have come to define the country in the twentieth century and beyond: political authoritarianism, the anticolonial legacy, and, especially, the lingering spectre of its long, rich cultural history.

The essentialist character of these works is not one of fixed geo-cultural essence, but a complication of received ideas and images, from iconography to anatomy to photographs to film, that serve as a response to contemporary issues that have increasingly stereotyped depictions of Myanmar today.

Featuring Works by:
Aye Ko, Aung Ko, Htein Lin, Richie Htet, Maung Day, Nge Lay, Soe Yu Nwe, Tun Win Aung and Wah Nu

Venue: Richard Koh Fine Art
Blk 47 Malan Road, #01-26 Gillman Barracks, Singapore 109444

When: 17 Jul - 8 Aug 2020,

Venue/Organizer: Richard Koh Fine Art