As an artist-run initiative, Maya Gallery cofounders Jeffrey Wandly and Masturah Shaari transform the gallery into their temporary art studio. At the same time, visitors are welcome to have a look at their creative process.
Since 2012, Maya Gallery has curated numerous art exhibitions, participated in international art fairs, hosted art workshops and talks, and collaborated with various organisations and institutions. The gallery also houses a library. Jeff and Mas are also visual artists whose works have been gaining momentum amongst art lovers and collectors.
While Jeff creates his paintings at the gallery in between exhibitions, or in his small apartment in Hanoi where he works professionally, Mas paints in a small corner of their living room at home after their three children go to sleep. When they are done with painting, the paints and art materials go back to storage and the space turns back to what it once was.
As artists and art gallerists, they have visited countless artist studios in Singapore, Bali and Jogja, and no studio looks alike. While one artist creates art in his bedroom or garage, another turns a huge warehouse into an art haven. In other countries around the world, artists open up their studios for other artists to rent as temporary studios – "spaces that foster productivity and creativity", (Two Artists Created the Airbnb for Renting Studio Space, https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-two-artists-created-airbnb-renting-studio-space).
Mas and Jeff have also helped create art spaces for emerging as well as established artists at the artist village of Emily Hill, as they know how it feels like not to have a permanent artist studio for themselves.
Sometimes it is also easy to forget that the perfectly hung paintings in an exhibition are products of a long process – the end result of many moments of creative inspiration in the artist\'s studio. An artist studio serves as a place where an artist works, creates, curates and gets inspired. These spaces do play an essential role in the artist’s creation process, and may even reflect his or her personality, as well as the attention to detail that goes into each work of art. "An artist’s studio is a window into the soul of his or her oeuvre, a sort of private sketch pad for the inner workings of an artist’s process, accessible to only a select few." (Studio Life: Inside the Artist’s Studio With Sarah Trigg, https://www.huffingtonpost.com/mutualart/studio-life-inside-the-ar_b_3981838.html)
It is with this in mind that these owners of Maya Gallery have decided to transform their gallery space in Ubi into an artist studio for a period of a month or two, before the next exhibition. With its warehouse characteristic high ceilings and concrete floors, who knows what Mas and Jeff has whipped up?
MasJeff Studio, a Maya Gallery initiative and named after Masturah\'s first design studio in 2003, is an invitation to the workspace of the gallery\'s co-founders Mas and Jeff. This also offers an opportunity to understand an artist\'s creative process.
The gallery will be accepting visitors by appointment only during this studio period.
To coincide with our 6th Anniversary, we invite you to our Open Studio & celebration on Sunday, 6 May 2018. Do join us!