About Richard Leow

Richard Leow is a Malaysian abstract artist based in Kuala Lumpur, working primarily in painting and drawing. Using acrylic, Chinese ink, charcoal, and pastel on canvas and paper, he develops his works through layering, removal, exposed surface, and repeated revision. His practice is recognised for balancing forceful gesture with compositional restraint, where physical intensity meets spatial openness.

At a glance, Leow’s paintings may appear metaphorical or nature-like, a quality often recognised within his visual language. Organic forms, shifting landscapes, atmospheric surfaces, and fragmented gestures emerge throughout the works without settling into direct representation. Influenced by the sensitivity of ink traditions and the discipline of reduction, his paintings retain a sense of breathing space and incompletion, allowing interpretation to remain open rather than fixed. Empty space, interrupted marks, and exposed layers remain active within the composition, creating tension between density and quietness, force and release.

Moving between monochrome restraint and moments of chromatic intensity, Leow approaches painting as a process of emergence rather than construction. His works evolve through intuition, concealment, response, and revision, allowing forms to appear and dissolve over time. Reduction plays a central role within his practice, not as simplification, but as a way of widening interpretive space. Meaning emerges gradually through perception rather than direct explanation, allowing the paintings to remain instinctive, unresolved, and open in experience.

For Leow, art is not separate from life, but part of an ongoing process of becoming. His paintings are not intended to resolve meaning, but to remain open through gesture, surface, and experience.

Drawing remained a private practice for many years before becoming central to his work. Developed independently outside formal academic training, Leow’s visual language evolved gradually through years of sustained practice and observation alongside professional work outside conventional art institutions. Time spent living in Germany, together with travels across Europe and Asia, further shaped his sensitivity toward reduction, spatial restraint, and material presence within painting.

His practice continues to evolve through abstraction, reduction, and the physical presence of gesture.

• 2025UNSPOKEN — Penang State Art Gallery, Penang. Group exhibition.
• 2025TARSCAPE Journey of Expression — Shah Alam Art Gallery, Selangor. Group exhibition.
• 2025Moments — The Factory 30, JWC, Johor. Solo exhibition.
• 2024Symphony — Capital Fine Art Auction Gallery, Selangor. Group exhibition.
• 2024WELL, WELL, WELL— Westin Langkawi Resort & Spa, Langkawi. Duo exhibition.
• 2023Silent Dialogue — Richard Leow Studio, Selangor. Solo exhibition.