Social commentary and an assortment of animals collide in Zac Lee’s latest exhibition, which is dubbed ‘When Come Spring (?)’. The show’s provocative title is both a question and statement, inspired by the open-ended narrative of Lee’s ten oil-on-jute paintings. Known for his cultured and precise painting style, Lee weaves tales of present day Malaysia through a series of striking images.
Tigers, magpies, fighting fishes and horses are housed in intentionally aged Polaroidesque frames, which signify art’s immediacy, the passing of time and the timeless nature of his messages. Using Martin Luther King’s maxim of ‘everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see’ as a starting point, Lee’s surrealist works shines a light on our beloved, flawed nation’s murky state of affairs. Wong Boon Ken