Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2016 KUALA LUMPUR: For the first time, Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) in collaboration with The Gallery, a Malaysia-owned art gallery in Shanghai, will be organising a month-long art showcase called „Discovering Malaysia Contemporary Art Exhibition‟ from 1 to 30 November 2016 in Shanghai.

Discovering Malaysia Contemporary Art Exhibition is one of the components of a country branding programme called „Choose Malaysia‟ that is set to take place in Shanghai from 9 till 12 November 2016. Other components of the event include a business forum, fashion showcase, business matching programme and many others.

The art exhibition aims to provide a platform for local artists, established and new, to present their Malaysian artworks to the Chinese art community, ultimately helping them to make inroads into one of the fastest growing contemporary art markets in the world. In 2015, fine art auction market in China was valued at RM20.58 billion, representing 30.2% of global fine art auction market of RM67.62 billion. Shanghai art market alone was valued at RM1.85 billion.

A total of 35 pieces of artworks from 13 local artists namely Dato‟ Tajuddin Ismail, Prof Awang Damit, Nik Mohd Shazmie, Cheong Tuck Wai, Gan Tee Sheng, Nik Mohd Hazri, Louise Low and Ken Wong will be showcased at the Gallery. The artworks represent modern to contemporary art with a combination of oil, acrylic, screen print, mix media as well as new Digital Art like Neon Light.

According to MATRADE‟s Chief Executive Officer, Dato‟ Dzulkifli Mahmud, MATRADE, through its vast international networks, will link Malaysian artists to the world buyers. “Art can brand our nation‟s diverse background and expose our unique culture to the world. Through art, we get to improve people-to-people connectivity too, and this is in line with the aspiration of One Belt One Road initiative. Most importantly, this initiative embodies the Malaysian Government‟s hope to boost the exports of Malaysian creative industry,” he said.

The artists involved in the exhibition are carefully selected to ensure all Malaysian art works featured are of the highest quality and bode well with the preferences of the Chinese art community. “I am confident that the China art aficionados and collectors will be amazed by the unique artworks of Malaysian artists. These artworks are products of Malaysia's very own talented, innovative artists,” Dato‟ Dzulkifli mentioned. The target visitors to the event are mainly local Chinese as well as foreigners who live and work in Shanghai. The city of Shanghai has over 24 million people and around 100,000 foreigners are residing and working there. In recent years, Asian contemporary art market has grown tremendously, especially in the Southeast-Asian Contemporary Art category. There has been an increasing number of artworks being auctioned in prestigious auction houses.

Southeast-Asian art also continues to be one of the best performing markets with 28% growth in auction sales recorded in 2015. For the past recent years, global art auction houses such as Christie and Sotheby Hong Kong started to aggressively promote arts from the South East Asian region including Malaysia. Currently, Sotheby has achieved RM653 million art auction sales from the region. Prof Awang Damit, for instance, has recorded auction sales worth of RM150,000 for a piece of art work. “There is however still a huge room for Malaysian arts to grow globally and this can be done through continuous exposure and promotion at the international art scene,” Dato‟ Dzulkifli said.

From 2012 to 2015, exports of arts reached RM12.9 million but despite the relatively small figure, efforts by the local artists, art galleries and relevant agencies such as MATRADE in reaching out to the global art scene continue to take place. In 2012, MATRADE had introduced an event, Arts Kuala Lumpur (Arts KL), as a platform for Malaysian artists and art promoters to market Malaysian art internationally. Following the event, MATRADE continued to carry out various promotion activities for local arts in cities such as Miami, London and Melbourne.

For more information on how MATRADE can help Malaysian artists, they are encouraged to contact MATRADE via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..