Sabah Art Gallery

The Artist

Awad Bajerai who hails from Penampang, Kota Kinabalu, received his Fine Art Education at the Malaysian Institute of Art, Kuala Lumpur. Awad' approach towards his paintings has been influenced by the rich cultural and mystical background of his the other ethnic people of Sabah. Studying their cultural and customs, Awad's work depicts ../images of traditional daily life in the past of the Kadazan-Dusun through the disphanous veil of history and legends. More on the abstract side his large scale works in oil invite contemplation of memories long past.

While Awad express himself mostly in water colors, lightly applied, soft and diffuse yet with clear characters in his very own style, as if seen through the haze of dream the life of the past-he has experimental with woodcarving. The three dimensions are a challenging trial in his task at expressing the abstract, innate thought of man and his environment.

With a brush and canvas Awad expresses the reality he sees and the meanings it unfolds to him. The language he speaks in the colors and strokes fascinates some people though they may not understand. To them his paintings touch their inner being and stimulate their minds. That is precisely what I desire most people having a certain within them whenever they look at my paintings. Awad say, he normally take about three to four months to complete a piece of work. It is not like I decide to paint today and finish the job in a few hours. As it involves my personal feelings about a particular subject, I must allow some time to express them it can take weeks or even months. I paints whenever I feel inspired, that is where the quality.

Awad has big goals in painting. He aims to promote Sabah and the whole island of Borneo through an artist's eyes. As an artist I must embrace all matter to understand what is going on around me. People say that artist are sensitive, but sensitivity has means being aware of what is all around of course the difference is that I express it through art.

On the future at art in Sabah, Awad sees a bright light along the tunnel, for the people of native artistic as is evident in the rich variety of handicrafts produced simple village folks are support they are getting from society.