SPEAK CRYPTIC
  • ABOUT
  • CONTACT
  • STORE
    • CASTING CALL ZINE (Free Download)
    • BACKGROUNDS (Free Download)
  • WORK
    • RECENT
      • Paintings
    • ARCHIVE (2009-2023)
      • PAINTINGS
        • Recent Paintings
      • DRAWINGS
        • Recent drawings
        • SELECTED DRAWINGS
        • State/s
      • EXHIBITIONS
        • OPEN MY HEART, EASE MY TASK, LOOSEN THE KNOT ON MY TONGUE
        • FLYING SUPERMARKET
        • KNIVES IN THE WATER
        • SORRY, NOT SORRY
        • AGIT
      • Murals and Installations
        • AN OCEAN WITHOUT THE ANCHOR
        • THE SAME SIDE OF THE MOON ALWAYS FACES EARTH
        • IN ALL DIRECTIONS
        • CROSSING SHORES
        • KAMAR KAMILLION
        • FENOMENA
        • SLOW AND STEADY
        • SING ALONG IF YOU KNOW THE WORDS
        • A STATE OF DECLINE
        • IN THE CLOUDS
        • MINOR CITIES
        • PRESENT CONDITION
        • KA-KHÉ
      • PERFORMANCES
        • ANATOMY OF A HEARTBREAK
        • THE TRIBE
    • SOUNDS
      • PRIMARY MOTIF
  • ABOUT
  • CONTACT
  • STORE
    • CASTING CALL ZINE (Free Download)
    • BACKGROUNDS (Free Download)
  • WORK
    • RECENT
      • Paintings
    • ARCHIVE (2009-2023)
      • PAINTINGS
        • Recent Paintings
      • DRAWINGS
        • Recent drawings
        • SELECTED DRAWINGS
        • State/s
      • EXHIBITIONS
        • OPEN MY HEART, EASE MY TASK, LOOSEN THE KNOT ON MY TONGUE
        • FLYING SUPERMARKET
        • KNIVES IN THE WATER
        • SORRY, NOT SORRY
        • AGIT
      • Murals and Installations
        • AN OCEAN WITHOUT THE ANCHOR
        • THE SAME SIDE OF THE MOON ALWAYS FACES EARTH
        • IN ALL DIRECTIONS
        • CROSSING SHORES
        • KAMAR KAMILLION
        • FENOMENA
        • SLOW AND STEADY
        • SING ALONG IF YOU KNOW THE WORDS
        • A STATE OF DECLINE
        • IN THE CLOUDS
        • MINOR CITIES
        • PRESENT CONDITION
        • KA-KHÉ
      • PERFORMANCES
        • ANATOMY OF A HEARTBREAK
        • THE TRIBE
    • SOUNDS
      • PRIMARY MOTIF
"SORRY, NOT SORRY"
Presented and curated by Gallery Krisstel Martin
Ink on canvas and paper (dimensions variable)


First solo show away from home.
10 September - 18 October 2015, Officina delle Zattere, Venice , Italy

The exhibition features 10 new paintings along with a collection of works on paper that explores the issue of identity and its impact on the personal landscape. By employing various symbols and iconographies borrowed from the artist’s cultural background and juxtaposing them with those inspired by popular and alternative culture, Speak Cryptic presents a series of portraits that depicts his impression of his identity as one that could be deemed as multi faceted and multi layered. With contemporary advertising bombarding us with images to subscribe to a lifestyle that we do not really need, how much control do we have over our own identities?

Being a Singaporean Malay of Baweanese descent, these series aims to open up the question, “How much of us is really us?” Aesthetically, it also introduces a new approach by the artist to painting. Starting out controlled and calculated (in the artists’ usual style), then progressing to an abandon of control and free expression, the series explores the unraveling of identity. A complex and provocative narrative, Sorry not Sorry, presents along with the 10 canvases a large scale mural on the roof of Officina delle Zattere, visible from the sky, overlooking the majestic Venetian skyline. The question of identity takes on a wider reference, city, state, nation and planet.

Copyright © 2025
  • ABOUT
  • CONTACT
  • STORE
    • CASTING CALL ZINE (Free Download)
    • BACKGROUNDS (Free Download)
  • WORK
    • RECENT
      • Paintings
    • ARCHIVE (2009-2023)
      • PAINTINGS
        • Recent Paintings
      • DRAWINGS
        • Recent drawings
        • SELECTED DRAWINGS
        • State/s
      • EXHIBITIONS
        • OPEN MY HEART, EASE MY TASK, LOOSEN THE KNOT ON MY TONGUE
        • FLYING SUPERMARKET
        • KNIVES IN THE WATER
        • SORRY, NOT SORRY
        • AGIT
      • Murals and Installations
        • AN OCEAN WITHOUT THE ANCHOR
        • THE SAME SIDE OF THE MOON ALWAYS FACES EARTH
        • IN ALL DIRECTIONS
        • CROSSING SHORES
        • KAMAR KAMILLION
        • FENOMENA
        • SLOW AND STEADY
        • SING ALONG IF YOU KNOW THE WORDS
        • A STATE OF DECLINE
        • IN THE CLOUDS
        • MINOR CITIES
        • PRESENT CONDITION
        • KA-KHÉ
      • PERFORMANCES
        • ANATOMY OF A HEARTBREAK
        • THE TRIBE
    • SOUNDS
      • PRIMARY MOTIF