Nasrul Rokes

b. 1999, Malaysia

Born in Besut, Terengganu, Malaysia, and raised in Johor, Nasrul completed his bachelor’s degree in fine art at UiTM Malaysia. Growing up near a sand and cement factory, Nasrul’s childhood play with the earthen material is embedded in his work.

With a focus on sand as his medium of choice, Nasrul sees the canvas as an “arena” in which artists act; “acting” upon the canvas in a similar way in which he used to play with sand as a child, Nasrul’s abstract work captures a sense of his own personal memory, experience, and pure emotion. In his most recent series of works, Nasrul depicts the symbiotic relationship between the Earth and the community, disrupted by the relentless pursuit of urban expansion. In his paintings, he mimics the aesthetic quality of rainfall, with colorful sand droplets forming unique textures, symbolizing sentiments of growth, joy, and love, questioning how these forces collide with the corrosive elements of human-led degradation of the Earth. Through his tactile artistic language, Nasrul creates an abstract landscape to amplify the silent cries of displaced soil, echoing the environmental and societal consequences of prioritising profit over preservation, conveying the concept of an artificial landscape created by humans.

Throughout his artistic journey, he has actively participated in various art competitions and exhibitions across Malaysia and Singapore. Nasrul’s first solo exhibition, ‘Kontekstura’, took place at TAKSU Kuala Lumpur in 2023 and was a successful, largely sold-out show. With a promising career ahead, Nasrul’s artworks were recently acquired by the luxury brand LVMH Group and have been collected by both regional and international collectors, as well as public institutions in Shanghai, Singapore, and Malaysia.