“I believe that drawing is thinking and painting is feeling. Therefore, I draw what I think and paint what I feel.”
Charles Cham started painting at the age of five, inspired by the first movie he ever saw. It was a story about an artist with a magic brush, and everything he painted became alive. He painted birds and they flew away. He painted fish and they swam away in the river. Finally he painted a woman, she became alive, and they fell in love. When Charles came home that day after the movie, he started to draw a portrait of the painter on the floor with some cake powder belonging to his mother. That was his first portrait.
After working as an editorial artist for a few years in Kuala Lumpur, he went to France to paint. He became a member of the Association des Artistes Indépendants in Aix-en-Provence and exhibited in the Salon des Indépendants in 1990 and 1991. In 1993, he set up his studio in the old quarter of his hometown Malacca, Malaysia, and named it The Orangutan House.
In 1995, he mounted his solo exhibition “Yin Et Yang Et Cetera” at the Creative Centre of the National Art Gallery in Kuala Lumpur, quickly followed by other exhibitions in the region and internationally. Since then he has exhibited in Singapore, Hong Kong, Bali, Australia, France, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Portugal, Hungary and Malaysia.
Charles Cham’s works are based on the philosophy of Yin and Yang — the duality of life and the attraction of opposites. He believes that everything has another side, visible or not. “The Yin and Yang paintings are actually multiple paintings. They are in fact two paintings on one canvas, with each facing in the opposite direction.”
“I believe that drawing is thinking and painting is feeling. Therefore, I draw what I think and paint what I feel. As there is no feeling without thinking, there is also no painting without drawing. Sometimes I feel more comfortable calling my works painted drawings rather than just paintings.”
Charles Cham, who had previously lived and painted in France, New York and Budapest, is currently based in Malacca. His works are in private collections in more than 40 countries.
Where to find the work
The Orangutan House
No. 59 Lorong Hang Jebat, Malacca
Branch Gallery
No. 31 Jalan Hang Lekir, Malacca
