GEORGE TOWN, June 3 — Penang is known for its active art scene with a supportive community, but for art collector Leong Kwong Yee, the ecosystem here seemed disconnected from the rest of the world.

From his travels all over the world, attending Biennales and Art Basels, Leong said he could not help but notice very few — if any — Malaysian and Penang artists are making a name for themselves internationally.

"When I travel, I see South-east Asian artists from Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand in exhibitions, Biennales but Malaysian and Penang artists were not part of that scene,” he said.

While the art scene may be thriving locally, he said there needs to be a bridge to bring Penang artists to the world.

This is where Blank Canvas comes in.

Blank Canvas is a collaborative art space Leong set up exactly two years ago to showcase conceptual art in a white cube environment.

"Penang has many unique galleries set against the heritage backdrop but it is lacking a white cube gallery so I decided to set one up as a collaborative art space,” he said.

The management consultant, who was originally from Taiping, lived in Penang during the Covid-19 pandemic before setting up Blank Canvas.

He said part of his mission is to collaborate with artists outside of Penang and even to collaborate with other galleries and curators.

"I want to build bridges to bring people to Penang and to bring Penang out into the world,” he said.

Leong has been collecting art for over two decades so the very first exhibition at Blank Canvas was of his collection titled Backwards Forwards.

The exhibition featured works by artists such as Alejandro Campins, Danh Vo, Guan Shi, Ryan Gander, Shooshie Sulaiman, Tomas Saraceno and Tris Vonna-Michell.

Since then, there have been several collaborative shows and residency programmes with Hong Kong artist, Trevor Yeung, and curator Christina Li.

"There will be a show on my collections each year so currently, the exhibition, ‘It depends...’, is the third exhibition from my collection,” Leong said.

Though Leong started out art collecting just like anyone else, with paintings and visual art, his art interest has since evolved to include more conceptual art that does not necessarily have to be visual.

Now, he has vast collections of paintings, sculptures, photographs and videos of performances.

"So, now I am attracted to things that I do not understand, things that are new,” he said.

He said a lot has been said and done when it comes to paintings so he is more interested in unique concepts that are more than mere paintings.

An example is the work by Daniel Lie whose installation Outres (2023) in the Sao Paulo Art Biennial featured the concepts of living and dying where jute sacks, soil, seeds and banners dyed with turmeric where brought together with flowers that changes and rots and grows throughout the show.

"We often think of art as beauty and I like Dan Lie’s idea on dying and rotting and how there is beauty in dying and regeneration after death, where even at the conclusion of the exhibition of his installation, nothing was thrown out, the soil goes back to the ground, everything was recycled, the cloth works become second generation art,” he said.

Incidentally, one of Lie’s pieces that Leong collected is being showcased at ‘It depends...” in Blank Canvas now.

Leong said Blank Canvas is a not-for-profit independent contemporary arts gallery that is open for collaborations with both regional and international artists and galleries.

Though the gallery does showcase conventional visual forms of painting and sculpture, it also explores conceptual art that includes photography, performances, installations, sounds and even psychology or mind games and experiences.

Blank Canvas2, Argus Lane, George Town, Penang www.blankcanvas.my