Feeling like a 'purrfect' animal Naveen Mathew Menon

Art lovers at the launch of the two exhibitions at the Annexe Gallery, Central Market.

KUALA LUMPUR: Two exhibitions -- one celebrating cats and dogs and the other depicting art as a temple of feelings -- opened at the Annexe Gallery, Central Market early this month.

Artist Jaja Yusof and one of her interesting interpretations of the cat.

Artist Donald ‘Dog’ and his rendition of a dog on canvas.

"In Sacred Places" featured the works of Peruvian artist Ernesto Pujazon, Iranian Hoda Mohammadi and Malaysians Chrisilda Cherian and Simon Tan. The paintings were a "thesis on the experience of art as a temple of feelings."

Though the subject matters varied from Kathakali and the Kama Sutra to flora and fauna, and even personal emotions, the works were unmistakably bound together by an indefinable sense of the sacred.

Chrisilda said her installation "Oriole's New Clothes" was developed from an installation she did in Australia in 2001 entitled "The Square Lantern." What inspired her was Kathakali, a 400-year-old theatrical dance form from Kerala, India.

"It captures the evolution of traditional Kathakali costumes to the contemporary," Cherian explained.

Launched simultaneously was "City of Cats & Dogs," which portrayed city life through the eyes of three young Malaysian artists -- Jaja Yusof, Donald "Dog" and Rosli Mohd Don.

Their subjects are cats, dogs and city street scenes. While Jaja's paintings focus on the feline species, Donald's paintings reveal a tender love for man's best friend. Rosli, meanwhile shares his view of the bustling city that is Kuala Lumpur.

Part of the exhibition's proceeds will be donated to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA).

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