“Graffiti is the best medium to communicate through visuals between artist and society,” quotes THEY. That is the rational behind why THEY chooses graffiti as his weapon of choice.
Malaysian Graffiti artist, THEY has started doing street art for the past ten years and has been actively pursuing it full time for the past 6 years. He founded TheyArtStudio in year 2004 and recently started the ‘TLG art movement’. “TLG is a neo-graffiti art movement where ‘diaorang’ speaks through graffiti with their own vocabulary, often with local slang.” TheyArtStudio serves as a legal wall for local artist to showcase their talent/artwork. THEY has since organize and curate 9 group shows at TheyArtStudio to serve as a platform to expose upcoming local urban artist.
A highlight during THEY’s as an artist is being recognize by the National Art Gallery for his pursue in graffiti and has support commisioned TheyArtStudio in curating KLGraff Jam 09 and also a Graff Tour around all Malaysia states to create awareness for graffiti art. He also represent Malaysia for “Great Anatolian Meeting of the World Cultures & Youth 2009″ at Ankara Turkey for his live Graffiti paintings together for his Rarereborn world tour project.
Another highlight would be THEY won the prestigious Piala Seri Endon Batik Award in 2008 for his Pop Batik collection. THEY fuses his love for graffiti and formal education in fashion & textile design. They also won The Star Designer Award 2004 and Best Student Award MIA 2004.
“I always strive to balance the traditional media(Batik) and the contemporary media(graffiti) as a basis for improvement.” It is undeniable that They’s passion and pursue have put a stamp in the Malaysia contemporary art.
written by Champ Teh, April 2009
Street artist, TLG family.