Anne Samat

Anne Samat (b. 1973, Malaysia) lives and works in Kuala Lumpur and New York. Samat employs the Southeast Asian art of Pua Kumbu weaving and adds humble goods from 99-cent stores to construct colorful, sumptuous, totemic works. They resonate with deeply personal themes of family and identity, and speak of love, individuality, and liberation. For Samat, it is important to embody what one feels from within - without fear, without compulsion. Her works often have a clear gender assignment, but even when this is discernible, it often feels irrelevant in light of the larger presence of the sculptures. Brightly colored and richly detailed, each one resonates as an avatar.

In these most recent works, Anne Samat has infused her family history into woven structures and symbols. The pieces embody personal stories; each sculpture is a totem for a different family member, with the figures of a mother and daughter appearing in these latest works. Handmade ropes cascade from armatures of radiant garden rakes. Found objects abound, at once cultural, formal and figurative. A pair of plastic funnels double as breasts, forks and spoons serve as a warp, and cassette tapes hang from chain-like '80s necklaces. Everyday trinkets and cultural markers blend seamlessly with Samat's intricate weaves to create a family mythology that transcends time and geography.

Samat's recent museum exhibitions include solo shows at CCA: Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel (2025); MASS MoCA (2023); the Moss Arts Center at Virginia Tech University, the University of Wyoming Art Museum (2023), and a group show at the ArtScience Museum Singapore. Most recently, her work was included in an exhibition at the House of World Cultures (HKW), Berlin, Germany (2025). In 2022, her work was prominently featured at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale in India. In 2020, she participated in the Asia Society Triennial in New York, and in 2019, she exhibited at the Cheongju Craft Biennale in South Korea, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Taiwan, and had a residency at Hudson Valley MoCA. Previously, her work was shown at the Yokohama Triennial in Japan (2017). Her work is currently presented at the Sydney Biennale 2024 and the IOTA - Indian Ocean Craft Triennial - in Perth, Australia. Her work is held in various private and public collections worldwide, including The Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL; National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Singapore Art Museum (SAM), Singapore; KADIST Art Collection, Paris, France and San Francisco, CA; and Hudson Valley MOCA, Peekskill, NY, among others.