KUCHING: Abyana Virginia Latif, or better known as Nia Latif in the local art scene was once a martial artist before she met a friend and flew to Kuching – where she started her career in the creative industry more than 10 years ago.
The self-taught artist and designer who was born in Jakarta, Indonesia, decided to move and stay in Kuching in 2002 to continue exploring ideas, learning and experimenting new skills as well as creating fresh thoughts.
“I was a martial artist and started to teach students when I was 17. Later, I decided to explore San Francisco to study English and Business Information Technology.
But, due to my strong desire to learn and explore something new – I decided to follow my friend to live in Kuching,” she recalled.
“Then, I met Narong Daun, a Sarawakian artist, who supported my early days of my transition from being a full time housewife to having a full time profession. She’s like a friend and mentor,” she told New Sarawak Tribune recently.
Nia started with doodling, painting, designing and making souvenir products and had tried out pottery making in early 2019. She learned her basic skills at Gardencraft, a local pottery making studio here in town.
For her, discovering joy in creating art was one also one of the self-discovery processes. Besides, doing art was a wonderful way to express herself and her artwork shows increasing confidence and complexity.
“Most of my work represents my perspective of beauty, life and experiences which I have gathered over the years – and were translated using the mediums that were available for me at the time.”
“I tend to focus and enjoy the process to create daily; rather than the final result,” she said.
“Some of my artwork are currently on display at the Hoan Gallery at La Promenade, Indah Art Gallery, and Saradise Feast while my designer goods are available at The Ranee Artisans and Borneo Cultures Museum Gift Shop,” she said.
The 41-year-old also shared that her favourite experience (artwork) was to create a huge mixed media shark artwork with the Sarawak Eco Warrior team members, students from SMK Sematan and the Wildlife Conservation Society members.
“We used rubbish we collected from a beach cleaning activity at Pantai Abang Amin in Sematan to create the art. It was exhibited around the town as part of our collaborative conservation effort,” she said.
When asked about challenges in her journey as a mixed media artist and designer, Nia shared that all her workshops and events were forced to cancel due to the movement control order (MCO) and various restrictions, which left most of the full time artists with zero income.
“Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and MCO, I had to move out from my creative studio. Furthermore, I have also started to experience allergic flares all over my body when working with synthetic material such as painting mediums.
“Thus, I had to make an adjustment and shift to working (using) with clay because of its natural ingredient component – and my art pieces were exhibited at ‘Naked: Raw Clay of Sarawak’ pottery exhibition event which was held in Kuching recently.”
“I’m still exploring more environmentally friendly natural ingredients for my future painting work.”
The mother of two wished to have the opportunity to create more innovative exhibitions in the near future.
“There are many ideas that keep on coming in my head ever since I’m dedicating my life to work as a full time artist.
With the right support and team members, I hope to be able to deliver these ideas one day – and one of them will be highlighted as my tribute to this amazing place we are living – Kuching, the Cat City,” she added.
