Lam was the first Malaysian resident artist at New York's International Studio & Curatorial Program (All photos: Ivan Lam)
Ivan Lam is the bringer of good things, even if sometimes in painful ways. This is a curious story for the annals of Malaysian art history: For many years, the artist Anurendra Jegadeva, my cousin, bore a strange desire to have two gold teeth.
Nostalgia, perhaps, for our grandmother’s old Chinese contractor Hong Yong, who displayed such teeth, but more certainly an irrepressible desire to simply draw consternation. He got his wish, quite painfully, when working on a joint exhibition with Lam. In the bustle of the comings and goings of setting up, Anurendra attempted to open a door to step out just as Lam, on the other side, pushed it open to enter, smashing the door into the face of the artist and shattering his two front teeth. An emergency visit to the dentist and excruciating procedure later, Anurendra emerged gleefully with two gold front teeth, but much to the irritation of his father.
For Lam, fortuity given is fortuity received — to be present in New York as the first Malaysian resident artist at the respected International Studio & Curatorial Program amid ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agent huntings and the swearing-in of the new mayor Zohran Mamdani.
“I was given my personal studio space and was surrounded by really gempak artists (artists of stature). It was very intense, with events every day. And there was the spacing, pacing, weather and culture to grapple with,” Lam recalls.
“And it is the Age of Trump. ICE agents were ever present and Trump’s America would present itself as a daily conversation. Most Americans seem to have just tuned out. And election of the mayor took place in the second week I was there. The influx felt weird, and once you step out of the studio, it’s all present, no buffer...”
“You could either react to it or take the other way: You seek sanctuary in the studio, in the activities of the programme to keep your sanity. All else is in your face — you smell, if you experience… So, how do you navigate this? I was just taking it all in. I could still step back and say, ‘I won’t be here after this,’ unlike some other artists for whom it is lasting and palpable.”
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The result of the New York experience is another radical turn in Lam’s approach — this time, in relation to space and duration.
On Edge will take place at the Drawing Room of Yap Ah Shak House, Kuala Lumpur. A result of the New York residency, the exhibition captures the urgency, historical moment and visceral colloquialisms of the city.
“The most important aspect of this exhibition is that we stepped out of the traditional gallery,” Lam explains.
“I have long swum in the pool; now I swim in the ocean. It’s a lot about stepping out of the comfort zone, to dive into the unknown. You know how to swim, but the method, the manner differs.
“When we went to see the space, so many things didn’t click and you had to figure it out. I had to do a mock-up and all, but the exciting thing is the uncertainty of orienting your work to this space.
“Now that the work is done, you need to know how the space is going to accommodate it. You have to work with the space, not just plonk it on this or that wall.
“I am never good with space; I am a very two-dimensional person. If you give me X and Y, I can work with it; but throw in a Z, it becomes a real space and I have difficulty imaging and I am at a loss.
“Interior design people do it well; sculptors do it well; architects, of course, do it well. Even till today, in my house, space, studio, I simply can’t imagine how the space could work. So, with this, we had to build a mock-up and get a sense of how actually the space can work. Getting all this done seems very primitive, but I really enjoyed stepping out of my comfort zone.”
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Much has been said of Lam as the “modern progressive” of Malaysian art. Yet, it is essential artistic restlessness that continues to induce intrigue and a perennial curiosity, this contemplation of space, with On Edge being a case in point.
“I grew up poor, though not poorly. And at one time, now having the means, I bought all kinds of equipment, but eventually gave up painting using brushes because it became a crutch. When you get used to a tool, you know the ins and outs of it. But when you take away that power, what are you going to do? Learn something else. Then you go back to being a novice and reset, and that will change the way you view and make the work,” Lam explains.
“I like to make mistakes, not take things for granted. I think a lot of artists do that, fall into the trap of not wanting to go out, or exist in an echo chamber until things break down and then it’s too late. If I start becoming repetitive, then I am in a rut. I keep trying things out, always with the best foot forward in order to get some resolve.”
On Edge features several gritty, prescient paintings; others, given the reach towards a sense of the present and its history, hark back to the manifesto tradition of surrealism, such as Death by a Thousand Paper Cuts. Jack, with its traditionalist approach to portrait painting, is juxtaposed against Jill, with its allusion to manga. And looming with “a sense of the times” is Riders of the Apocalypse.
Lam’s origins are said to be pop art, a tradition noted for its contemporaneousness but ignored for its existential uncertainties and tentativeness, all of which are ever evident in Lam’s approach.
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There is a moving and evocative scene in one of Murakami Haruki’s finest novels, the recent The City and its Uncertain Walls, where the protagonist and his beloved — unnamed, known only as He and She — appear and disappear between the walls of two different cities, identified only by shadows.
The resonance can be found also in On Edge, where the brittle, the cautionary tale, the figure, exist in a kind of time suspension, existential and bittersweet — all the lasting virtues of the perennial novice.
'On Edge' will be held from May 5 to 7 at the Drawing Room of Yap Ah Shak House, KL. Contact Wei-Ling Gallery at [email protected].
This article first appeared on May 4, 2026 in The Edge Malaysia.
