GEORGE TOWN, Aug 31 — He started drawing caricatures on the streets out of desperation to make ends meet 11 years ago and today, Mohd Azmi Mohd Hussin, is holding his first ever solo exhibition chronicling his artistic journey.
The exhibition, aptly titled “Cari”, highlights the 40-year-old artist’s journey of discovery and experimentation that ranges from caricatures, coffee paintings to murals and his latest works, combining the colours of pop art on canvas with his iconic comic characters.
While the title “Cari” was derived from the word caricature, it also means “to find” in Malay which describes Azmi’s journey of finding his own art style in the past 10 years.
“Sometimes I feel lost and I have been searching for my own style all these years, even now, I am still searching,” he said about his art.
Though known for his comic books such as The Little Mamak and Tanjung Life, Azmi branched out into different art styles over the years including a series showcasing his other passion, BMX extreme cycling, and coffee painting.
In recent years, he has been painting murals and he has also started experimenting with art on canvas where his iconic comic characters are set against pop art style colours.
One of them, “Ferry From Hollywood”, is a painting of Penang’s iconic ferry named Pulau Pinang and the characters spilling out of the ferry and surrounding it were fictional characters from 100 different movies.
“These are from movies I’ve watched growing up until adulthood,” he said.
The first time that he tried out this new style was a piece called “Kampung Nasi Lemak: where a familiar kampung scene surrounded two gigantic nasi lemak set against a bright purple background.
Both paintings feature cute and fun details that will have visitors trying to spot characters they recognise.
“I like to paint details so that visitors don’t just glance at the work and move on, I want them to stand there and look at it for a long time and notice different details each time they look,” he said.
True enough, if you were to stare at the “Ferry From Hollywood: long enough, you will probably spot many characters that bring back happy childhood memories of movies back in the 1990s, even back to the 1980s.
There are also characters from recent movies such as the ever popular minions or pop culture icons of the past such as Bruce Lee and Harrison Ford (as Indiana Jones).
The exhibition does not only feature Azmi’s past and current works, it also has two interactive sections – a large mural of Tanjong Life and a life-size comic section.
The comic section is a recreation of Azmi’s grandmother’s living room where he spent most of his childhood.
“This will be a nice background for people to take pictures and pose for their social media,” he said.
Azmi will also be sitting at the section to do a “live” caricature session this Sunday in conjunction with the launch of his solo exhibition.
This is Azmi’s first solo exhibition and it was something he had dreamt of when he first visited Ernest Zacharevic’s solo exhibition “Art is Rubbish, Rubbish is Art” back in 2013.
“I’ve visited so many exhibitions here in Hin Bus Depot and I always wondered what it was like to see my name here so when I saw it for the first time last night, I could feel myself tearing up,” he said.
He had received other invitations to hold exhibitions elsewhere but his main goal was always to hold his first solo exhibition at Hin Bus Depot.
“I feel so happy to be able to show my art here and I am so thankful for Hin Bus Depot for this space,” he said.
Aside from the paintings and artworks on display, Azmi’s collection of original artworks stored in folders will also be on display for visitors to flip through.
“Cari” opens to the public today and will go on until September 29. The exhibition is open daily from 12pm to 7pm on weekdays and 11am to 7pm on weekends. Entrance is free.
Activities have also been lined up throughout the duration of the exhibition including a Meet the Artist session. Find out more at hinbusdepot.com.
