::plAy: Art from Myanmar Today

Curated by Isabel Ching & Yin Ker

Participating artists: Aung Myint, Emily Phyo, Ko Z, Min Thein Sung, MPP Yei Myint, Myat Kyawt, Nyein Chan Su (NCS), Po Po, Soe Naing, The Maw Naing, Tun Win Aung, Wah Nu, Zar Min Htike

In this first major exhibition of Myanma art, curated by Isabel Ching and Yin Ker are keen to adopt as muse a force closer to life in the way it is enacted on a daily basis in Myanmar (Burma) - one whose language is proper to humanity as well. Myanmar is often taken as synonymous with Buddhism, NGOs, drugs, poverty and realpolitik, as if her people lived on this medley alone. But Southeast Asia's largest peninsular country that connects the two civilizations of India and China, and with a population of 50 million, is more. Adopting "play" as its theme, this exhibition sets out to explore the ways thirteen Myanmar artists born between the 1940s and 1980s negotiate with life and art presently, ergo unveiling the intricacies of Myanmar art today: its many colours and paradoxies, from the jocular to carnivalesque to plain irony.