In a nondescript double-storey house in TTDI, painted canvases are displayed everywhere in the hallway. The riot of colours is made more vivid by the afternoon sun streaming through the house, with painted flowers, streams, fields of green and trees that seem to take on a life of their own.
“The house is full of his paintings,” confides Patricia Lim of her son Dennis’ impressively large oeuvre, adding moments later: “Dennis is upstairs painting.” At the top of the stairs, in a small alcove by the window, artist Dennis Liew is busy painting a field of lavender. His brows furrowed, he’s in deep concentration as his hand moves in confident strokes over the canvas.
“Say hello, Dennis,” his mother reminds him gently and he acquiesces with a brief smile before sitting back to resume painting. I stand by his side, mesmerised by his painting. The field of lavender are slowly taking form as he layers on brilliant swathes of colours to his artwork. It feels a shame to mention that Liew is diagnosed with Asperger, because he clearly deserves to be seen as an artist in his own right, regardless of his condition.
People might see Asperger syndrome as something holding Liew back, but that isn’t the case. With his third solo exhibition ‘Nature Sojourn’ at the Ledge Gallery, he’s certainly letting his art speak for itself. “As an artist, you need to know what you’re good at,” he remarks as he paints. “So what are you good at?” I ask. “My paintings of course,” he replies matter-of-factly with a shrug, adding: “All my capabilities and abilities lie there.”
Painting a thousand words
People with Asperger’s are often looked at with a strange sense of admiration as they tend to follow what they’re passionate about with a laser-sharp focus. They will do whatever it takes to become successes in their own right, to the point that it becomes an obsession. Perhaps that’s why so many illustrious names down the years have been people with Asperger’s: Courtney Love, Dan Aykroyd, Tim Burton and Isaac Newton, just to name a few. Liew is no different and his determination and focus towards his craft is undeniable. “I just want to improve and paint more,” he maintains.
His condition serves to highlight his precocious development as a highly talented artist. “I started drawing at the age of four or five, as communication was not an option for me at the time… so this was my form of language,” he says, recalling that he also did his ‘artwork’ on the walls of his house when he was a lot younger. “Obviously that’s not good,” he says earnestly, adding that he took up art classes off and on through his school years. “I only stopped briefly to focus on my studies,” he shares.
His journey has not been easy, both mother and son concede. Liew hardly spoke, recalls Patricia, even when he entered primary school. Yet while his speech development took time and despite his academic challenges, Liew excelled in art, scoring a distinction for Art in his SPM.
Why does he love art so much? I ask him and he takes his time to answer. “They say ‘a picture paints a thousand words’”, he replies after a pause, adding: “I don’t have a thousand words but my art does. It says a lot about me.”
The Graphic Design graduate now works as a clerk, but he paints furiously over the weekend. “Painting keeps me going,” he says simply. When he’s having a bad day, he reveals, he just picks up his paintbrush and starts painting. “It makes me happy. I would always advise anyone to do what makes them happy.”
Nature-inspired art
Art must be derived from inspiration, insists Liew and nature gives him that. “God’s creation is very beautiful and He has made us all in the natural state. I love nature,” he declares simply. What he has caught in his mind’s eye isn’t just Mother Nature and her myriad forms, but rather the abstract glories of being: joy, beauty, innocence; happiness itself. As Liew attests, he’s happiest when he’s painting.
Citing Van Gogh and Monet as his inspiration, Liew’s artworks take on different forms and styles. From impasto, impressionism, pointillism and even literati that’s made popular by Chinese artists, Liew’s oeuvre is a dazzling display of his uncanny ability to master different strokes of the brush or palette knife.
His first solo exhibition was way back in 2014 and since then, he has been determined to make his own inimitable mark in the art world, citing notable artists such as Dr. Jolly Koh and Syed Ahmad Jamal as his benchmarks. Still, he has come a long way as an artist in his own right.
The best thing about his success, Liew confides, is all the people he gets to meet, and the fact that his paintings have been received well by the discerning art crowd. “It makes me feel good and happy because it makes people smile. And when they smile, I smile,” he divulges.
His paintings are on sale, but he reveals that he is often sad when people are unable to afford his art. “So I made prints!” he says, adding: “Because I would like people to be able to afford my art.” His array of colourful art is now reproduced into postcards and prints that are on sale during his current exhibition.
He is obviously pleased when I admire his work but otherwise, that’s this ever-present stoic expression etched on his face. “Smile, Dennis. Lift the corners of your mouth up!” his mother reminds him half-exasperatedly as he poses for photographs. “I am!” is his rejoinder.
Surrounded by his art, Liew sits obediently with a strained smile. His face is not used to those muscles. But as his eye catches on to one of his paintings, a real smile blooms, and all at once, his face transforms. After all, what could make him happier than his art?
For people with Asperger’s, Liew is yet another example of someone triumphing against the odds, breaking through glass ceilings and shattering the myth that one has to be neurotypical to succeed. What’s most important, however, is the fact that he is indeed happy. And his rare smile says it all.
What: Nature Sojourn – a solo art exhibition by Dennis Liew
When: Until Feb 25, 2019
Where: The Ledge Art Gallery, 3F Highstreet, 1 Utama Shopping Centre, 1, Lebuh Bandar Utama, Bandar Utama, Petaling Jaya
Time: 11 am to 9 pm