A NEW exhibition entitled ClicheArt — Exposing The Exposed by Shukor Yahya is on at Balai Berita of the New Straits Times Press building in Kuala Lumpur till Sept 30.

It features 20 paintings on canvas. Most of the pieces are portraits of famous personalities. Among them are Andy Warhol, Osama Bin Laden, US President George W. Bush, former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and former Prime Ministers Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj and Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Several of the paintings reflect Shukor’s eye for the whimsical aspects of his life. Among them are The Weekend Warrior, a portrait of a cyclist reflecting cycling as his favourite pastime and The Cat and The Mouse, a painting showing a cat sniffing at a (computer) mouse.
Shukor, 52, a part-time painter, has been a graphic artist for more than 30 years. He experience includes working in advertising companies such as McCann Ericsson, Idris Associates, Wings BBDO and Bates Asia.
His inspirations for ClicheArt — Exposing The Exposed was drawn from current events in the print media such as newspapers and magazines.
"My idea for the paintings was derived from what I see, hear and read. What interests me is not just the newsmakers as personalities but also what they say and do," he said.
Shukor used emulsion paints for his pieces, giving solidity to the pieces with its strong colour and texture.
"I decided to experiment with the paints because of their durability," he said.
However, the process of painting the portraits is more meticulous than one would have thought. Firstly, the pictures are scanned on to a computer. Depending on the complexity of the subject each picture would take 1½ weeks or more to be processed into graphic images by a special software on the computer. The pictures are then transferred on to the canvas and the colours are painted onto the ready-images on the canvas.
This is Shukor’s first solo exhibition in Malaysia. His previous solo exhibition was in Melbourne, Australia in 1988 followed by several group exhibitions here.
Exhibition hours are from 9am to 6pm daily. Admission is free.