Gajah Gallery Singapore presents Latiff Mohidin: Lines to Form, a landmark solo exhibition by one of Malaysia’s foremost modernist artists. The exhibition unveils Latiff Mohidin’s first-ever cast bronze sculpture from his iconic Pago Pago series. Presented alongside a selection of works on paper, the exhibition, in collaboration with LM Studio, brings into dialogue a new direction that illuminates the continuity of Latiff’s artistic vision across more than seven decades.
First conceived in the early 1960s, Pago Pago emerged as Latiff’s vision of a cosmopolitan yet regionally rooted modernism. Shaped by his travels across Southeast Asia, it evolved into a distinctive visual language informed by the region’s landscapes, architecture, and cultural traditions, while advancing a distinctly Southeast Asian perspective on modernism. The series’ enduring significance is reflected in its international recognition, including its presentation at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in 2018.
Curated by Syed Muhammad Hafiz of LM Studio, the exhibition introduces Burung 1 (Bird 1), realised in collaboration with Yogya Art Lab (YAL), Gajah Gallery’s foundry arm based in Yogyakarta. Scaled from his original ciment fondu sculpture of the same name, the work was cast in silicon bronze under Latiff’s direction, thus marking the artist’s first foray into bronze and extending the enduring language of Pago Pago into a new medium.
Complementing Burung 1 (Bird 1) is a selection of works on paper from the Pago Pago, Gelombang, Rimba, and Voyage series. Together, they trace the evolution of Latiff’s visual language—from the formative Pago Pago works of the 1960s to the landscapes of Gelombang and Rimba, and meditations on travel and cultural encounters in Voyage. Spanning more than six decades, these works affirm the coherence and enduring vitality of one of Southeast Asia’s most influential artistic practices.
