Mixed media · Penang
Elle Tan
Andaman Threads (2024)
Penang-based mixed media artist exploring the textile traditions of the Strait through layered fabric and ink.
"The sea here is woven, not painted."
An Ascott Artisans Initiative
Artist Spaces.
A wall, a window, a room — given freely. No commission taken on what is sold.
Ascott has long believed a residence should belong to its city. Artist Spaces is the next step — a structured programme across our properties that grants local artists a place to show their work, with the gallery infrastructure, lighting, and footfall of an Ascott address.
The Penang Launch
Where the programme begins.
Penang is the natural first chapter. George Town's craft community — its watercolourists, its weavers, its ceramicists — has carried the island's visual identity for generations, often without a gallery to show it in.
Ascott Gurney Penang opens its lobby gallery, residence corridors, and the wall outside Jos Bar to a rotating cohort of six island artists each quarter. Sales go directly to the artist.
From Penang, the programme rolls out brand-by-brand across the Ascott portfolio — every property given a local lens.
Inaugural Cohort · Penang
Six artists. One island.
Photography · Kuala Lumpur
Rahim Osman
Shop Houses, After Rain
Architectural photographer documenting the disappearing shophouse vernacular of Malaysia's port cities.
"I photograph buildings the day before the bulldozer."
Ceramics · Ipoh
Mei Foong
Limestone Vessels
Ceramicist working with Kinta Valley clay and traditional reduction firing.
"Each vessel is a slow conversation with the kiln."
Painting · Penang
Anand Veerasamy
George Town Diaries
Watercolourist whose street studies have become a visual archive of inner George Town.
"Every shutter, every doorway, has a name."
Textile · Kelantan
Noor Ibrahim
Songket Reimagined
Master weaver bringing the Kelantanese songket tradition into contemporary installation work.
"Gold thread carries memory better than ink."
Sculpture · Penang
Kim Lai
Strait of Salt
Sculptor working with reclaimed copper and Penang sea salt to render time and tide.
"Salt remembers what the harbour forgets."
Apply
Show your work.
Local artists, illustrators, photographers, ceramicists and textile makers are invited to apply. Submissions are reviewed quarterly by the Artist Spaces curatorial panel.