Patrick, Wen Guo Qing founder of Qing Gallery.
Patrick On, Wen Guo Qing has always been keen to explore how the perimeters of design can inspire a person to do brilliant things. As an Art Collector, “I started to see the world differently during the pandemic. It made me feel like life is short, and that we should all be doing what we love doing.” A meeting with London- based artist, Jacky Tsai changed the odds for Patrick On. They built a relationship, talking about art almost every night, commissioning art and he even bought some art pieces from Jacky Tsai. Impressed by Tsai’s talent Patrick wanted to share his art with the world.
“To me, art and music are the gateways to the soul. I want to share. The joy of art is sharing.” With that, he founded Qing Gallery. “Qing is actually my name. I was born on Malaysia’s National Day (31st August) in Chinese it’s called Guo Qing– ‘Qing’ in Chinese means celebration.”The Gallery is located in Desa Park City, surrounded by lush greenery within a park and residential community. The Gallery is a space not only for visitors to look at art, but Patrick hopes that they will learn more about art.
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His passion for art also grew while travelling to a lot of cities around the world. He makes it a point to visit an Art Gallery each time because he feels that art speaks a lot about one’s country and culture. Having visited many art galleries in Malaysia, Patrick’s vision was different. He didn’t want a space with four white walls for a gallery.
“I feel that a gallery should be a multidisciplinary space whereby creativity can be matured. In Qing Gallery, we have a nice lounge to entertain customers and a beautiful gallery space whereby natural light comes in and we put a lot of narratives on the wall. We don’t need to cramp the wall with too many artworks, like an art shop. A lot of galleries in Malaysia are more interested to sell art. Whereas we are more interested to mature talent and share art.”
Patrick’s vision was to share his business space with the community. He wanted his gallery to be a place where people can come in to enjoy and appreciate art.
Promoting Malaysian Artists Internationally
Patrick On, Wen Guo Qing founder of Qing Gallery.
One of Patricks’s visions is to create awareness for Malaysian artists worldwide, which means that we support local talent and promote them in the overseas market. The idea is to showcase Malaysian artwork in Singapore, Bangkok in the near future, and also maybe in London. They want to promote Malaysian artists overseas at the same time, introduce foreign artists to Malaysia.
In that respect, they are not a gallery that wants to push too many local artists into the local market. Because he feels there’s a lot of saturation in the gallery space in Malaysia, whereby local Malaysian artists already have representation in a couple of galleries that are around KL. In that sense, it will make the artist’s work very commercialised and it becomes a sort of competition.
“So I rather have a system whereby I can mature the artists and bring them overseas like some of the artists that I work with Every day, we know that we learn something about artwork, every artist has their own strengths. Every artist has their own style. So each person is unique,” Patrick explains.
When asked about his personal favourite painting, He mentioned Salvador Dali. “Dali is somebody who uses surrealism. And he has pushed the boundaries of how the human mind can conceive. Like his melting watch or an elephant with skinny legs to express weightlessness. The hit show on Netflix, Money Heist uses Salvador Dali’s famous mask.
“I think he has captured the imagination of people around the world. And I think he lives in those times in the early 19th century, whereby art has come through after going through a period of time with an explosion of Pablo Picasso,” says Patrick.
Upcoming exhibitions at Qing Gallery
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In February Qing Gallery will open a show with emerging artist Karwai. She was born in Hong Kong, but moved to Malaysia when she was 14. “I’m very excited about the show as this is her first solo show. She has a lot of collectors who are demanding her artwork,” shares Patrick. Karwai is also known for doing many artworks for Formula 1.
In November the gallery will potentially host the works of French Vietnamese artist Cyril Kongo, who is a very famous graffiti artist in Paris. The trend has moved graffiti art to canvas. “Most importantly, I’m looking forward to the creation of Qing Lounge- a multi-disciplinary creative space, whereby we will use the space to launch fashion, watches, and jewellery, amongst art,” says Patrick.
For those who love a great day out, Qing Gallery is also planning an art and music festival this year. So make sure to watch this space for more updates. For more information on Qing Gallery click here.
