Khaw Sia is regarded as one of the 8 pioneer artists of Malaysia for good reasons (refer to the publication by The Art Gallery, Eight Pioneer Artists of Malaysian Art, 2nd edition, Marshall Cavendish Editions, Singapore, 2014). He was born in China in 1913 and died in Penang in 1984. He graduated from Sin Hua Academy, Shanghai in 1932. Coming from a rich family, he was able to travel to England in 1933 to study under Sir Russel Flint for a period. After that, as is the custom, he went on a grand tour, sketching all that he saw, including landscapes, churches and other buildings. He moved to Penang with his family in 1937 after a short stay in Thailand. In 1954, he became the first Malaysian artist to visit Bali, and held an exhibition of his paintings in watercolour and oil in 1955. His subsequent solo exhibitions were held in 1966 (Portraits in oil, Perak), 1976 and 1977 (Orchids, Penang).
Due to the unfortunate postponement of the show, we have created a virtual walkthrough of the exhibition via Artsteps. The virtual walkthrough is best viewed on a desktop browser, or via Artsteps mobile app (available on Android and iOS).
