Image size: 121 x 121 cm
Nirmala Dutt Shanmughalingham, born in Penang, Malaysia in 1941, has been painting since the early 1960s. She trained initially under Mohamed Hoessein Enas, the pre-eminent naturalist painter and founder of the Angkatan Pelukis Semenanjung (APS) group before heading to art schools in the USA and UK. She returned to Malaysia in 1978. A participant in numerous group exhibitions both in Malaysia and internationally, she was the first artist to exhibit an installation piece at the National Art Gallery in 1973. One of the most important female artists in the region, she forged new frontiers in utilizing documentary photography in her art. Nirmala’s arresting mixed-media compositions focus on issues such as politics, war and environmental pollution.‘Friends in Need’ is a political satire featuring the images of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan in the form of ‘wayang purwa’ (traditional Javanese theatre using flat cut-outs of painted leather puppets). The work created some controversy when it was shown at a British-Malaysian art exhibition at the National Art Gallery.
