Noor Mahnun: ANUM
Exhibition dates: 17 May – 6 July 2025
Artist Talk @ the Finissage 5 July 2025, 2 pm
Yeo Workshop is proud to announce the Singapore debut solo exhibition of acclaimed Malaysian artist Noor Mahnun, also known as Anum. This landmark presentation coincides with the 40th anniversary of her first exhibition at Video Diva, an artist-run space in Florence, Italy, in 1985. For both the artist and the gallery, this exhibition marks a pivotal chapter in the unfolding story of Southeast Asian contemporary art — one that foregrounds the nuanced contributions of women artists whose practices have long developed outside the spotlight, yet resonate with remarkable clarity and relevance today.
Anum’s work — deeply personal, technically rigorous, and quietly subversive — straddles still life and figurative painting. Her oil-on-canvas compositions are marked by a delicate visual precision that elevates the everyday. With a distinctive aesthetic language shaped by her architectural training and European art education, Anum draws viewers into slow contemplation. Each canvas fuses narrative nuance with psychological subtlety, offering a compelling meditation on memory, place, and material culture.
Known for her refined, disciplined approach to painting, Anum imbues the mundane with quiet vitality. Her palette and compositional logic reference not only the domestic and the familiar, but also the geographies that have shaped her life — from Kelantan and Kuala Lumpur to Florence and Braunschweig. Her most recent works reflect a return to the east coast of Malaysia, incorporating elements of local topography, shoreline architecture, and regional symbolism into her visual lexicon.
Anum’s works, while modest in scale, are conceptually rich — often characterized by a sense of psychological interiority and a dry wit. This exhibition, a first solo outside Malaysia in four decades, offers global collectors and curators a rare opportunity to engage with an artist whose introspective oeuvre is only now gaining international recognition.
About the Artist
Born in 1964 in Kelantan, Malaysia, Noor Mahnun trained in architecture in the United States before pursuing her Master of Fine Arts in painting at Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Braunschweig, Germany. During her time in Europe, she held solo shows in Florence and across Germany, and upon returning to Malaysia, became an active figure in the local art scene — not only as an artist, but also as a curator, educator, and arts manager.
Her accolades include residencies at Rimbun Dahan (Malaysia) and Gunnery Studios (Australia), as well as a printmaking scholarship from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a senior fellowship from the Nippon Foundation’s Asian Public Intellectuals program.
Following her participation in international art fairs such as Frieze Seoul and NADA Miami in 2024, Anum’s work has gained renewed attention from collectors and institutions alike. Her quiet mastery and distinctive voice make her one of the most compelling mid-career artists from the region to watch.
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Exhibition dates: 17 May – 6 July 2025
Artist Talk @ the Finissage 5 July 2025, 2 pm
Yeo Workshop is proud to announce the Singapore debut solo exhibition of acclaimed Malaysian artist Noor Mahnun, also known as Anum. This landmark presentation coincides with the 40th anniversary of her first exhibition at Video Diva, an artist-run space in Florence, Italy, in 1985. For both the artist and the gallery, this exhibition marks a pivotal chapter in the unfolding story of Southeast Asian contemporary art — one that foregrounds the nuanced contributions of women artists whose practices have long developed outside the spotlight, yet resonate with remarkable clarity and relevance today.
Anum’s work — deeply personal, technically rigorous, and quietly subversive — straddles still life and figurative painting. Her oil-on-canvas compositions are marked by a delicate visual precision that elevates the everyday. With a distinctive aesthetic language shaped by her architectural training and European art education, Anum draws viewers into slow contemplation. Each canvas fuses narrative nuance with psychological subtlety, offering a compelling meditation on memory, place, and material culture.
Known for her refined, disciplined approach to painting, Anum imbues the mundane with quiet vitality. Her palette and compositional logic reference not only the domestic and the familiar, but also the geographies that have shaped her life — from Kelantan and Kuala Lumpur to Florence and Braunschweig. Her most recent works reflect a return to the east coast of Malaysia, incorporating elements of local topography, shoreline architecture, and regional symbolism into her visual lexicon.
Anum’s works, while modest in scale, are conceptually rich — often characterized by a sense of psychological interiority and a dry wit. This exhibition, a first solo outside Malaysia in four decades, offers global collectors and curators a rare opportunity to engage with an artist whose introspective oeuvre is only now gaining international recognition.
About the Artist
Born in 1964 in Kelantan, Malaysia, Noor Mahnun trained in architecture in the United States before pursuing her Master of Fine Arts in painting at Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Braunschweig, Germany. During her time in Europe, she held solo shows in Florence and across Germany, and upon returning to Malaysia, became an active figure in the local art scene — not only as an artist, but also as a curator, educator, and arts manager.
Her accolades include residencies at Rimbun Dahan (Malaysia) and Gunnery Studios (Australia), as well as a printmaking scholarship from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a senior fellowship from the Nippon Foundation’s Asian Public Intellectuals program.
Following her participation in international art fairs such as Frieze Seoul and NADA Miami in 2024, Anum’s work has gained renewed attention from collectors and institutions alike. Her quiet mastery and distinctive voice make her one of the most compelling mid-career artists from the region to watch.
