When the moon and stars are aligned, the perfect night is created and in this case, an IMPerfect night of art, wine and friends.

The ‘IMPerfect Creation’ was held in Melbourne’s SpACE@Collins gallery recently featuring award-winning Asian contemporary sculptor Ch’ng Huck Theng’s bronze sculpture creations. Pronounced as “I am perfect”, it was his first solo exhibition in Australia and successfully sold seven out of the 11 pieces on display. The 11 interesting artwork pieces carries its unique story, meaning and philosophy inspired by different people and happenings around the artist.

The opening night was officiated by Rupert Myer, Chair of the Australian Council of the Arts and was attended by more than 150 people, all who were the artist’s close network of friends.

In Myer’s speech, he said:  “This new perspective that Ch’ng introduces is the concept of beauty and ugly – in which beauty cannot be seen if one cannot see ugliness. Ch’ng strikes me as not just a business man, he’s an artist and editor with an inquisitive mind. I know this as he interviewed me for his magazine, Essenze, where he seemed to understand my full story even though the interview was just a short one. Rupert continued by comparing Ch’ng’s concepts and philosophy with Australia’s great including artist Arthur Boyd and Albert Tucker. He is a brilliant and talented man.”     

The evening was catered by Humbling Eats, one of Melbourne’s finest caterers for fine cocktails.

“The sculptures show us social behaviour that we encounter daily, or that we ourselves act out consciously or unconsciously. Each piece tells a deep story and most are from my experience too,” said Ch’ng.

Some of the pieces are more personal to him. “Princess Liberty for example, depicts the time when my daughter went to study in university in Australia. So she’s riding a horse which also represents the plane, but I named it Princess Liberty because even though she’s away from home and grown up, she’s still daddy’s little princess.

I hope that my art will make us look deeper into our own hearts when faced with issues and problems,” Ch’ng said.

It takes Ch’ng almost six months to create one sculpture and the heaviest piece named “Angel of Love”, weighs more than 100kg.

Ch’ng is currently one of the leading artists and sculptors in Malaysia as this year marks the artist’s 22 years in art. His works are collected not only in Malaysia but around the world by respected institutions that include the National Visual Art Gallery Malaysia, Singapore Art Museum, Hong Kong University Museum & Gallery, Shanghai Art Museum and Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts (ENSBA) in Paris. 

The Collectors

星月映照的完美夜晚，“IMPerfect”铸造了这个以艺术，葡萄酒和朋友齐聚的沉醉之夜。

“IMPerfect 创作”在墨尔本的SpACE @ Collins艺术画廊举行，这是屡获殊荣的亚洲当代雕塑家庄学腾的青铜雕塑作品展览会。这是他在澳大利亚首次个展，名称发音为“我很完美”，并在11件展品中成功卖出其中7件。而全部 11件的趣味艺术作品带有环绕着创作者身边人与事的独特故事，意义和哲学灵感。

开幕仪式由澳大利亚艺术委员会主席Rupert Myer主持，逾150人出席参与，显现艺术家丰富绵密的人际网络。揭幕礼贵宾Rupert Myer表示， 庄学腾的作品以新视角解析美丽和丑陋的概念 – 如果一个人看不到丑陋，同样看不见美丽。

“庄学腾的不仅是一名商人，同时具备艺术家和主编的好奇心，我们相识于他主导编辑出版的杂志-御智（Essenze），作为被采访的对象，他似乎理解我全部故事，即使是简短急促的会面，也印证他是一个闪耀和才华横溢的人。”

墨尔本最佳精品鸡尾酒供应商之一 Humbling Eats 也承担晚会餐饮。

“雕塑作品还原了我们每天遇到的社会行为，我们本身有意识或无意识地表现出来，每件作品都叙述一个深刻的故事，大多数都来自我的经历。”

至于一些更是属于庄学腾个人生活片段。“比如“自由公主”的雕塑，描绘我女儿前往澳大利亚大学念书的时刻，雕像的女孩乘坐的马儿也代表飞机，而命名为自由公主，因为即使她长大与离开家，她仍然是爸爸的小公主。”

他希望自己的作品能让大家在面对问题时更深入地解析本身的心情。而耗费他约6个月时间创作的雕塑作品“摩登老子”，重量超过100公斤。

庄学腾是马来西亚当代领先的艺术家和雕塑家之一，今年是他迈入艺术创作生涯的22周年。另外，不仅在本土，世界各地艺术博物馆皆有收藏其作品，包括马来西亚国家视觉艺术画廊、新加坡艺术博物馆、香港大学博物馆和画廊，上海艺术博物馆和巴黎国立高等美术学院（ENSBA）。