Fauzulyusri

b. 1974, Malaysia

The work of Fauzulyusri has been consistently strong over his more than two-decade-long careers, with 13 solo exhibitions to date and countless group exhibitions to his name. His ability to pragmatically push his painting in new directions while maintaining a vocabulary of individual mark-making has arrived at a mature expression.

Heavy-bodied pigments like oil paints, pumice & industrial texture paste compliment the kind of signature surface scarring, loose irreverence, and layering that have become fundamental to the structure of Fauzul’s images. The viewer can easily dissect the image into layers that build the picture, not only in terms of traditional spatial depth from thin paint on raw jute to a dense top application but also as a device in creating texture within the painting to enliven the surface. It animates the isolated figures and forms so that they appear to float, masked and cropped collage-style by the dense upper surface.

While it is easy to read Fauzul’s paintings as the games and dreams of a child, Fauzul’s geometric abstractions also have the urbanity of graffiti, of scuffed and scarred walls, and that sense of decay of contemporary life.

A favourite amongst many collectors, Fauzulyusri graduated from UiTM Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia in 1999, and has been exhibiting regionally throughout Asia; Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Singapore, internationally in  Prague (Czech Republic), Saatchi Gallery London UK in 2018, and most recently in Seoul, South Korea. Fauzulyusri’s numerous awards and accolades throughout his career have brought his artworks to be in many private, public & institutional collections; National Arts Gallery Malaysia (KL), Central Bank of Malaysia (KL), Khazanah Nasional Bhd (KL), The Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development (KL), Maybank Finance Bhd (KL), Ilham Gallery (KL), Galeri Z (KL), Swiss Re Group (KL), Four Season Hotel (KL), Banyan Tree (KL), Andaz Hotel (SG) and Foster + Partners (UK). To date, he had won several awards including the prestigious Kijang Art Awards by the Central Bank of Malaysia in 2004 and the Young Contemporary Art Award at National Arts Gallery Malaysia in 2002.