A duo presentation of works by Anum (Noor Mahnun) (b. 1964, Malaysia) and Filippo Sciascia (b. 1972, Italy). Anum’s figurative paintings draw on everyday life, popular culture and literature. She will develop entirely new works that take inspiration from myriad forms of entertainment in music and dance, from the Bollywood movie An Evening in Paris (1967) to Salome’s dance of the seven veils. She also references Poussin’s The Arcadian Shepherds, to reflect on the notion of utopia and fantasy. Beneath their guise of naivety and delicacy, her compositions weave subtle psychological narratives with a droll attitude towards the unusual, even if banal. Filippo Sciascia takes Light as a grounding element in his practice, through which he reflects on the formation of knowledge from primitive and biological processes to present day technological advancement.
Concerned with anthropology and social evolution, Sciascia uses organic materials such as volcanic ash and fossilised amber from Bali, Indonesia where he is based, as markers of time—of how the past intersects with and informs the present. He deftly plays on the art historical canon as well, subtly incorporating classical painting motifs and techniques to his sculptural objects, such as the eyes of Saint Lucy from Italian renaissance painting. Or Primitive Mornings, a fragment of a Greco-Roman mask, which recalls the ancient epoch of both Man and Earth, while simultaneously gesturing at Balinese rituals and the Hellenistic world.
Anum (b. 1964, Malaysia) studied architecture in the USA. She was artist-in-residence at Rimbun Dahan in Kuang, Selangor (2000-2001) and received a scholarship from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for a printmaking course at Il Bisonte, Florence (2002-2003). Her solo exhibitions include ‘Disco Lombok Still Life’ (2017) at The Edge Galerie, Kuala Lumpur and ‘September’ (2021) at The Back Room, Kuala Lumpur. She completed her Master’s in Fine Art at Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Braunschweig, 1996. Her first solo exhibition with the gallery will be held in May 2025.
Filippo Sciascia (b. 1972, Palma Di Montechiaro Sicily, Italy) is based in Bali, Indonesia. Working between figuration and abstraction, he uses Light as a fundamental conceptual and material medium to challenge the boundaries of painting and the representational. His work has been exhibited internationally including Yeo Workshop, Singapore (2024, 2021, 2019, 2017); Nonfrasa gallery, Bali (2024); Istituto Italiano Di Cultura Jakarta, Embassy Of Italy Jakarta and Museum Pasifika Bali (2023); Ruang Dini, Jakarta (2021); Galerie Pedro Cera, Lisbon (2019); Sarang I, Yogyakarta (2016); Archeological
