Kuala Lumpur-based Suwen Low has been painting for over 15 years, mainly in oils on large canvases. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) degree in Fine Arts from Central Saint Martins in London.
Suwen has exhibited in group exhibitions in London and Kuala Lumpur. A finalist in Starhill Gallery’s Visual Arts Awards, her work is currently held in several private collections.
To gather inspiration and further her training as an artist, Suwen regularly travels to different places and meets other artists. The basis of inspiration for her works has always been the beauty of simple moments and seemingly everyday situations. Observations and revelations from her travels and adventures are recorded almost daily in journals. These recollections serve to inspire the foundations of her paintings.
Suwen’s Christian faith fuels her to capture the simple moments in life that are sometimes overlooked. She brings these moments to the viewer for reflection and consideration so that they realise there is more to learn from what we see on the outside. Blurred images painted loosely yet carefully are sometimes contrasted with sharp lines, showing that these moments are fleeting yet important for the viewer to remember and contemplate.
LISTEN is Suwen’s debut Solo Exhibition and marks her return to painting after five years of running her own tech startup and managing food artist, Samantha Lee. Inspired by her time in Africa volunteering among children and the poor in 2016, LISTEN is a process of reflection and wonderment of what she experienced, saw and the people she met. Transitioning from darker colours to brighter, pastel tones, her paintings aim to breathe life into the viewer, give rise to hope and serve as reminders that strength and joy can be found in the most unlikely of places.
As part of her lifelong journey to live simply and love freely, a portion of the sales proceeds from LISTEN will go towards Iris Global’s work in Mozambique and Madagascar as well as local refugee centre ULC Kuala Lumpur (Myanmar).