KUALA LUMPUR, June 4 — When Hasnul J. Saidon, Taufik Abdullah, Fauzin Mustafa and Mohd Noor Mahmud first exhibited together in 1989, they were young artists asking what art could do beyond the marketplace.

Thirty-seven years later, the four have returned to that conversation through Four Perceptions: The Living Continuum, now showing at Ruang Teduh Gallery in Tun Razak Exchange until June 8.

The exhibition is the third edition of 4 Persepsi, following the group’s first exhibition, 4 Persepsi: Bicara Makna, at Balai Seni Lukis Negara in 1989, and a second edition in 2019.

Its interest lies not only in the reunion of four long-time friends, but in how the project has followed them across different stages of life and artistic practice.

According to the exhibition catalogue, the three editions can be read as three phases in their careers: the first after formal art training, the second during their established professional years, and the latest after they had retired from fixed careers and moved into full-time art practice.

The current exhibition brings together works that deal with nature, memory, spirituality and material practice, while also paying tribute to their late mentor Ismail Zain, the Malaysian artist, writer, educator and pioneer in computer art.

The exhibition continues a concern that has shaped the group since its first outing in 1989: the idea that art should carry meaning and communicate with its audience, rather than function only as an object for display or sale.

The catalogue traces this concern back to the group’s first exhibition, noting that the artists were interested in ideas, meaning and communication, and in resisting the view of art as merely commercial.

Although they are linked by friendship and shared history, the four artists are not presented as a single formal movement.

Taufik is quoted in the exhibition catalogue as saying Empat Persepsi was not a planned or formal art group, but one built through friendship and a decision to exhibit together.

Their works instead reflect different routes through Malaysian contemporary art.

Hasnul, a multidisciplinary artist, curator and educator, presents works centred on pathways, rivers and water as metaphors for inner journeys, healing and the relationship between the physical and metaphysical worlds.

Taufik continues his Heartwork series, using the image of the heart to explore vulnerability, resilience, emotion and faith.

Fauzin brings together contemporary art practice with Malay cultural references, using textured surfaces, batik-inspired elements and Nusantara symbolism.

Mohd Noor, described in the exhibition material as known for transforming batik into a contemporary fine art medium, presents works that reinterpret batik motifs through expressive compositions and wood sculpture.

Together, their works return to recurring themes of flow, balance and transformation, suggesting that tradition is not fixed but shaped continuously through memory, material and lived experience.

Rather than presenting tradition as nostalgia, The Living Continuum frames it as something that adapts across time — through batik, mixed media, symbolism and personal reflection.

For the artists, the exhibition marks another return to a shared starting point — one shaped by friendship, critical thought and the belief that art should continue to speak beyond the surface.

Four Perceptions: The Living Continuum is showing at Ruang Teduh Gallery, Lot UG 31 & 32, Exchange 106, Tun Razak Exchange, Kuala Lumpur, until June 8, 2026.