Jerome Kugan - "The Mystic Self (in two parts), or If the time ever comes when all of life’s questions get answered, will I get compensated for all the fuckery I’ve had to endure?"
Jerome Kugan - "The Mystic Self (in two parts), or If the time ever comes when all of life’s questions get answered, will I get compensated for all the fuckery I’ve had to endure?"
TITLE: The Mystic Self (in two parts), or If the time ever comes when all of life’s questions get answered, will I get compensated for all the fuckery I’ve had to endure?
YEAR: 2023
MEDIUM: Graphite on tracing paper and mixed media
DIMENSIONS: 26 × 18 cm
Sandwich framed between glass with Swiss clips.
Jerome Kugan (b. 1975, Kota Kinabalu) is an artist based between Kuala Lumpur and Kota Kinabalu. Graduating with a BA in Writing from the University of Canberra in 1998, he has worked in various capacities as a writer, event organiser, musician, and queer activist in Kuala Lumpur.
In 2008, he co-organised Seksualiti Merdeka, a gender and sexuality rights festival in KL, until it was banned by the Malaysian government in 2011. In 2012, he founded Rainbow Rojak, a series of queer-inclusive themed parties in KL.
Although he has been exhibiting his artworks since 2005, it was only in 2016 that he began pursuing his art practice full-time, presenting his first solo Red & Gold at Raw Arts Space in Kuala Lumpur. In 2017, he moved back to his hometown of Kota Kinabalu, where he has continued to explore themes of queerness, spirituality and the self, in his mixed media paintings. In 2022, he staged his second solo show in two parts, HURT|NEED|UNDO| LIVE and RESIST, at The Back Room, Kuala Lumpur.