Mark Your Calendar: Painting Dreams Alive

Listen To The Eyes, acrylic on canvas, by Owen. — Painted by Owen, who has autism. His brushstrokes are full of bold and fiery emotions. Pic courtesy of Heritouch Gallery.

From September 7 – 24, Heritouch Gallery will host “Painting Dreams Alive”, the first-ever art exhibition that will showcase the talents of eight young Malaysian artists with special needs — Eunice, Leong Kai Qing, Zingirlbell, Isaac Foong, Looi Yoke Hui, Ken Looi, Esmond Yong and Owen.

Veron Tang, an avid art collector and a member of the event organising committee, said most children who has Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have difficulty articulating their thoughts.

“Art can help these special children express emotions that they can’t easily articulate. Besides ASD, there’s also an artist who has Obsessive-compulsive Disorder (OCD), one has congenital hearing impairment, one has Down Syndrome, and one is a cancer survivor,” Tang said.

“Their parents — like all parents — are worried about their childrens’ ability to earn a living and that is why Heritouch hopes to raise funds to set up an art learning centre that could provide free art education for kids with disabilities who need teachers to nurture their talents to reach their full potential, and the gallery can be a platform for them to sell their works.

“The exhibition will feature 70 pieces of art, comprising paintings and sculptures, which we hope to sell to raise funds for starting an art school for special children. Half of the sales proceeds from the exhibition will go to the artists, and half will go toward the setting up of the art centre,” she added.

Another event organising committee member and art enthusiast Teh Wuan Xin, highlighted the story of Esmond Yong, and why the artist had sculpted Harambe holding a delicate flower.

Mourning Harambe, a clay figure sculpted by Esmond. Pic by Heritouch Gallery.

In case you didn’t know the story of Harambe, the tragedy unfolded when a three-year-old boy climbed into the gorillas’ enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo in the United States on May 28, 2016. The other gorillas stepped away but Harambe reached out to the boy. Fearing for the boy’s safety, a zookeeper shot and killed Harambe as he wasn’t sure whether the 17-year-old Western lowland gorilla was going to harm the little boy.

Esmond, who saw the video recording of the incident, was deeply saddened as he felt that Harambe was just trying to save the little boy. And so he did a clay figure of Harambe in memory of the “Gentle Giant” and named his sculpture, “Mourning Harambe”.