Written by:
Nicole CHANG is
currently a PhD student in the Department of Development Planning and
Management at the School of Social Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang.
Her PhD research is on contribution of the art sector in revitalising and
developing local economy. Her research interests are related to the development
of urban regeneration, creative cities/creative industries, place making/place
branding, community engagement, public art and art economy. Contact:
nic_csf@hotmail.com
Koh Teng Huat (Ah Koh),
an impressionist artist who devoted to
ART and his Hometown
Ah Koh: “Artists’
heart is as wide as the sea and the hill at Balik Pulau. Let’s feel the inner
soul of this beautiful city before the flow of development engulfed it
completely.”
Koh Teng Huat, widely addressed as Ah Koh, among the local community in
Penang, especially among the art circles. His endless devotion in promoting the
unspoiled fishing village town of Balik Pulau through art, culture and heritage
has touched many local peoples’ heart in Penang, particularly in Balik Pulau.
Through art, he attempts to elevate more awareness about environmental
conservation and also to advocate the multicultural harmoniousness in the
country.
Ah Koh is a
self-taught artist who painted out his very own style of palette knife
paintings. He uses his palette knives and paint brushes, painted out the scene that
he has seen onto the canvas. His bold and expressive personality as well as his
exuberance in art is uninhibitedly demonstrated through each of his art strokes.
Throughout the years since he started to paint, he has produced a series of art
pieces that mostly captured scenes at Balik Pulau and George Town, Penang. Other
than that, he also travelled to other places within or out of Malaysia to
capture the interesting places, objects, peoples or activities onto his canvas.
As he likes meeting different peoples, he enjoys painting outdoors. You might
spot him among the crowds in the cities, painting on the streets. You might
also see him painting on the hillside, at the seaside or on the farmlands. His
on-the-spot demonstrations of palette knife paintings always attracted the
crowd of locals and visitors.
Ah Koh’s Art
Journey
Ah Koh, a Penang-born artist, is now 52 years old. He was growing up in a
Malay Kampung (Paya Kongsi) in Balik Pulau. After completing his secondary education, he left
his hometown for career development at cities in other states within Malaysia.
He had been working in many different fields. He was a reporter, a sales personnel
and a businessman as well as an educator. In 2004, he decided to move back to
his home town together with his family, looking for simplicity of life.
In 2008, after some academic case studies were
conducted on the community of Hakka immigrants and the heritage as well as the
culture of Balik Pulau, this little fishing village town has caught the media’s
limelight. Many local and international media teams came for the documentary shootings.
Besides, many locally as well as internationally famous artists were attracted
to visit Balik Pulau. They came to taste the famous durian fruits and, at the
same time, to sketch and paint the natural scenes of this town. Slowly, this
town become a great hideout for artists to source for creative inspirations. At
that time, Ah Koh voluntarily became the local tour guide for the visiting
artists. Seeing the artists painting the scenes of his hometown beautifully on
the canvas, Ah Koh’s long dormant desire in painting was aroused. He then took
up his paint brush again, started with a piece that painting soil, rocks and
rivers, using the leftover paints from the visiting artists. Later on, he was
exposed to palette knife oil painting. He was so attracted to the uninhibited
and bold brush strokes. Since then, he recognized palette knife oil painting is
a medium that well suit his personal character. Subsequently, he started his
journey in the art world.
His Participation in Art Activities
In 2010, together with his friend, Ah Koh founded Balik Pulau Art
Society. Next, he set up his own art studio at Pulau Betong, Balik Pulau in
2011. Ah Koh loves to invite friends, especially artists from different places
to his art space for sharing and exchange in art. He always hopes that through
the engagement and interaction among artists from different places, it would
eventually help to promote Penang’s art to the international market.
Since 2010, Ah Koh has started to showcase his artworks
in group exhibitions which held within Malaysia. Also, he had participated in international
exhibitions in Taiwan, China and Singapore. In 2013, he had his first solo exhibition in Kuala Lumpur.
In 2014, he had participated in more than 10 exhibitions including his 2nd
and 3rd solo exhibitions in Kuala Lumpur and Penang. In 2015, he
held his 4th and 5th solo exhibitions in Singapore and
Kuala Lumpur.
Although being a
self-taught artist, his passion and determination in art is never less than the
professional trained artists. Nowadays, his paintings are one of the favourite
collections of the local as well as the international collectors. Beside of individual collectors, his artworks
were also collected by many art galleries and some private institutions. Since 2014, his artworks have started to be included in Malaysia’s art
auction market. Total five pieces of his artworks were sold out during Masterpiece
Fine Art Auction, in Kuala Lumpur (Oct 2014, March 2014, August 2015 &
October 2015).
His Dream
Ah Koh said, “Art is not supposed to be treated as something prominent. Art
should be meant reachable. People should be able to feel or experience art in
everyday life!” Along his artistic journey, Ah Koh always attempts to
creatively bond art with nature, culture and heritage. He attempts to promote
the awareness in conservation of nature, culture as well as heritage through
art engagements that linked to people’s life. He started this move at Balik
Pulau. He enduringly organizes art activities at Balik Pulau, hoping that one
day he could realise his long-awaited dream, i.e. making Balik Pulau an
International Art Village, or preferably called The Art-topia. Through art, he
hopes to encourage more peoples to explore different sides of Balik Pulau. With
continuous supports from friends that consist of artists, academicians,
entrepreneurs, businessman, industrialists and activists in art, culture and
heritage as well as the nature conservationists, he is looking forward to
preserve and retain the unspoiled native scene of Balik Pulau. Although he is aware
that this is unlikely happening, he never gives up. He hopes that, with the
artists’ joined effort, they could at least documenting the existing scene of Balik
Pulau onto canvas before it being fated away along with the development
process.
From Ah Koh’s perspective, I learnt that life can be
simple and less complicated without too much demand for luxury. Ah Koh, who
enjoys living a simple life, appreciates and thankful to what he currently has.
He hardly bothers to emphasize on the return or outcome of his initiatives. But
rather, he enjoys every single process that he went through in building up what
he dream of. I think this is what we called the value of life!