Adventure is Out There is the title of the new exhibition of photography by Eric Ooi at the G Art Gallery. Ooi is a charming and enthusiastic young man who works professionally as a wedding and portrait photographer out of Kuala Lumpur. He has travelled extensively though, to follow his passion, and this is evidenced wonderfully in this collection. Each print exhibited here is from a limited collection of 20, and is on sale for around RM2000, which is reasonable given the high quality of the prints.

The artwork itself is ethereal in nature. Most images hail from colder parts of the planet including New Zealand and Iceland. He is very skilled at capturing a moment in time and space in an evocative and dreamy romantic way. His photographs seem reminiscent of an enchanted world somewhere else, with clear air and a clarity in the light that doesn’t exist in Penang. I particularly enjoyed the crepuscular rays of light beaming from behind the rocks of New Zealand. He also manages to capture the eerie glow and vibrant greens of the Northern Lights in a spectacular way. The subtleties of his compositions are complemented by the softness of the light and his work is truly magical to behold.

At the exhibition opening ceremony, Ooi did discuss some of his processes, talking particularly about the starry night photographs. He said they are a combination of time lapses, which is how he managed to get the colours so vivid and the stars so bright. The Milky Way photograph is extravagant and exquisite and he told the story of how he had to wake up at 4am to shoot that, and the night before had been full of rain so he wasn’t sure he would get the shot, but he did and now it is one of his favourites.

G Art Gallery is a contemporary gallery on the mezzanine floor of the G Hotel on Gurney Drive, next to Gurney Plaza mall. To find it go in through the main entrance, turn right, and take the lift to the first floor. From there, turn left and you can see it right away. It has huge beautiful glass windows that let in the light and while the space is small, it attracts some very high quality artists and they hold regular exhibitions.

The exhibition will be up until April 30th 2019 and is open to the public 7 days a week from 10am-10pm. 

By Lusy Koror