Why it belongs in ORBIS
Founded in 1975 in Batu Ferringhi, Penang, Yahong Art Gallery shows the original batik paintings of Dato' Chuah Thean Teng (1914-2008), the Fujian-born artist credited with pioneering batik as a fine-art medium after his postwar Penang batik factory failed. The family-run gallery also displays work by his three sons and two grandsons.
Chuah Thean Teng was born in 1914 in Fujian, China, and moved to Penang with his parents at age 14. After World War II he opened a batik factory in Penang; when the business venture failed, he began experimenting with batik as a painting medium rather than a textile craft, producing his first batik artwork, "Malayan Life," in 1941 according to art historian T.K. Sabapathy.
Teng became known as the father of batik painting for transforming the everyday wax-resist textile craft into a recognized fine-art form, merging figurative painting with fabric dyeing. His work was acquired by private collectors and museums internationally, and he was awarded the title Dato'. He died on 25 November 2008 in Penang, aged 96.
Yahong Art Gallery, founded in 1975 in Batu Ferringhi, remains family-run and continues to show Teng's original batik paintings alongside work by his three sons and two grandsons, as well as watercolor, Chinese ink and oil paintings by other Malaysian artists -- a multigenerational continuation the gallery itself frames as "all in the family."