Featuring a plethora of works from multiple disciplines, What Does Reality Look Like? focuses on the inner workings and creative processes of 13 emerging artists, whose exploration of a range of topics are set against the unprecedented global backdrop that is the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
As the world continues to be shaken by the effects of the coronavirus, the rules of art continue to shift, bringing with it new opportunities and challenges for those who dream of pursuing their craft in the wake of this new reality.
 
Art students entering the field during such a time do so for reasons ranging from the deeply personal to the vastly controversial, and to make their voices heard. Yet in the wake of the pandemic, how do the changes minted by safety regulations, new ways of exhibiting artwork and the overall ambiguity of viewer attitudes shape the art practice of this generation’s creatives?
 
What Does Reality Look Like? was borne from the unusual circumstances through which the students of NAFA’s BA Fine Art Practice Programme entered their academic year. Through a series of works ranging from 2D works and sculptures to performance pieces and installations, the exhibition endeavours to show how the pandemic would significantly impact, alter and reframe the various practices of the fledgling artists in their pursuit of different and unique visions of the world.

Featuring Grace Angel (Indonesia), Ho Chung Kwang (Malaysia), Jayalakshmi D/O Sethu Raman, Kimberley Boudville (Malaysia), Lee Yi Xuan, Long Teng Min Nicholas, Muhammad Amirul Bin Azman, Nagarajan Ananya, Nur Arina ‘Abidah Binte Abdul Aziz, Sufia Binte Sukhidir, Xue Chuqin (China), Yang Hanwen (China) and Yeo Keng Wee.

Muhammad Amirul Bin Azman, In and around the room, 2020. Image courtesy of the artist.