EXHIBITION

In 𝚒 𝚛𝚎𝚖𝚎𝚖𝚋𝚎𝚛..., Sharon SS Kow presents a suite of coloured-pencil drawings that render childhood toys with meticulous, hyperrealistic precision. Working within the Realism tradition, Sharon employs the discrete, layered application of coloured pencil to arrest perceptual time: surfaces, textures and chromatic subtleties are rendered with such fidelity that the works occupy the space between accurate description and contemplative suspension. The obvious subject, familiar playthings, becomes a formal apparatus through which the artist examines how everyday objects accumulate affective weight.

Central to the exhibition is an inquiry of memory as both a material and relational process. Sharon treats objects as repositories of private histories: each drawing embodies a vessel for recollection, conveying a calibrated balance of longing, restraint and consolation. The hyperreal surface is not an end in itself but a means of amplifying the quiet registers of feeling that objects carry, the residue of use, the patina of attention, and the interstitial silences that mark lives lived around them. Through the careful attention given to these traces, the works reveal the fragmentary nature of remembrance and the subtle ways in which objects carry and shape our personal stories, summoning the joy, vulnerability, and quiet grief that accompany childhood memories and the persistent traces the past leaves on the present.

Made possible through the support of Faber-Castell Malaysia, this exhibition will donate a portion of its proceeds to The Children Protection Society Malaysia (CPSM).

𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗼𝗻 𝗦𝗶𝗲𝘄 𝗦𝘂𝗮𝗻 𝗞𝗼𝘄 is a Penang-based artist whose practice over the past decade has been devoted to the meticulous art of coloured pencil drawing. Since beginning her professional pursuit of the medium in 2013, Sharon has gravitated towards Realism, producing works that capture the subtle textures, tonal values, and delicate nuances of everyday objects. Through her detailed and hyperrealistic approach, she articulates the ordinary into vessels of memory, emotion, and reflection, as a means to experience familiarities in a new, intimate lens.

For Sharon, the act of creating art is a meditative process. It allows her to enter a state of deep focus, where the mind quiets and the hand moves intuitively, a process she describes as ‘feeling’ rather than simply ‘seeing.’ Her choice of commonplace subjects, particularly childhood objects, becomes a metaphorical exploration of the dialogue between logic and emotion, memory and experience, revealing how ordinary things quietly shape human lives and the stories we carry forward.

Working in coloured pencil demands patience, precision, and an intimate understanding of the medium. Sharon’s mastery allows her to achieve levels of depth, realism, and emotional resonance comparable to other established artistic media. A Signature Member of the Colored Pencil Society of America (CPSA) since 2016, her work has been featured in numerous international publications and exhibited widely both locally and abroad, earning recognition for its technical skill, meditative quality, and evocative power.

Website:
https://sharonsskow.com/