Lot 34 | Auction XVIII

LOT 34

Rafiee Ghani
B. Kedah, 1962

Wetlands I, 1995

Signed on lower left

Inscribed “Wetlands 01’ 1995” on the reverse

Oil on canvas

129.5 x 138 cm

Provenance Private Collection, Singapore

RM 12,000 – RM 18,000

“I am using juxtaposition of forms and colours to bring about that mood in an enclosed space. Having delicate and beautiful things so close, we tend to overlook it. I want to rearrange it. Make it more visible and so that we can stop and look around us.”

For Rafiee Ghani, it’s all about the mood. It is about feelings. Take for example, he has said that he does not merely paint melons or mangoes, he paints his “feelings” about them. In this piece, one can almost feel if not see the emotions that surround the artist when he gazes upon his subject matter, which is the wetlands. There is the love for the environment, and the passionate love for colour and that he looks at the world very differently. Both the colour and abstraction result in a hypnotising piece that beckon the viewer to dissect the narration behind it, trying to understand it and at the same time, change our view of what nature truly is like and how it can make you feel through Rafiee Ghani’s works.

Rafiee Ghani was born in Kulim, Kedah. He studied and obtained the De Vrije Academie Voor Bildeende Kunst at The Hague, Netherlands. Thereafter, he pursued his Diploma in Fine Art from Institut Teknologi Mara, Shah Alam. He then obtained his Master of Art in Fine Prints at Manchester Metropolitan University in 1987.