The Zhe Xuan Touch

Zhe Xuan touched my arm, fascinated with my hairiness. He stoked my arm as he would a kitten. I was puzzled. Seventeen-year-old Zhe Xuan normally barges past me, lost in his autistic world, still unable to speak, rushing to grab colours and canvas for painting. Today, he stopped, grinned his hard won grin and rubbed his hand over my hair.

I have known Zhe Xuan for two years, ever since I first visited the centre. It has taken two years for him to brave physical contact with me. I was thrilled. His mother normally requests Zhe Xuan to say hello Martin. Sometimes he does, sometimes he is too eager to get started. Mostly all I get is a quickly muttered something, his mother’s stern face and her apology. I’m grateful for anything really.

Family Pua have turned negativity into positivity. Pua Zhe Xuan was born with autism. His early life was a struggle to communicate. Zhe Xuan's parents soon noticed their son's aptitude for art, and supported him in his endeavours to communicate visually that which he was unable to communicate in speech.

Today it rained a lazy equatorial rain. Not enough to water the thirsty lemongrass outside the centre, but enough to take some of the heat from the air, and crowd the outside of the tuition centre with shoes and umbrellas. The end of the week is always like that - droves of parents depositing their children, multiple shoes on shoe racks - hampering stray dogs intent on playing with them, and today - a Jenga of umbrellas.

Zhe Xuan has worked hard these last few months. He paints on much larger canvases now,

painting and drawing the Kuala Lumpur landscape. His is a unique perspective, flat, bringing to mind pioneer modernist painters. His artworks exude magic, symbolism and spiritual energies in abundance. His acrylic paintings reflect the intensity of Paul Klee and the naive playfulness of a newly discovered Henri Rousseau. Zhe Xuan simplifies what he sees, there is little need for ornament, he grasps the essences and presents them to his audience, one which is ever growing.

Zhe Xuan has a launch of his new artworks at the end of November. He is still painting in his unique style, assisted by one teacher and his mother May. Without their guidance Zhe Xuan would linger over one image, drawing and re-drawing that image for the entire two hours of his art class. Today he continued with Malaysia’s Petronas towers. A light blue and washed green formed his background, over which he drew the outlines in black magic marker. He focussed intently on his work singing ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’, over and over as he drew.

The opening of his latest exhibition coincides with the initiation of his own gallery in Cheras, just outside Kuala Lumpur. It has been a long time coming, but Zhe Xuan has finally arrived on the Malaysian art scene with his simply scintillating imagery.

Born in Klang, Zhe Xuan is a local boy making good. He has not let autism hamper his zest for life,  or his passion for painting. Zhe Xuan reflects our world back to us, and by so doing enriches our knowledge and our hearts.

Pua Zhe Xuan's latest exhibition may be seen at Zhe Xuan Fine Art Gallery, Dataran C180, Cheras. 24th November 2013