Anne Samat

Anne Samat (b. 1973, Malaysia) lives and works in New York. She employs the Southeast Asian Pua Kumbu weaving technique and incorporates humble goods from dollar stores to create colorful, sumptuous, totemic works. Her pieces resonate with deeply personal themes of family and identity and speak of love, individuality, and liberation. For Samat, it is important to embody one's inner feelings without fear or compulsion. Although her works often have a clear gender assignment, this often feels irrelevant in light of the sculptures' larger presence. Brightly colored and richly detailed, each piece resonates as an avatar.
 
In her most recent works, Samat has infused her family history into woven structures and symbols. The pieces embody personal stories, and each sculpture is a totem for a different family member. Figures of a mother and daughter appear in these latest works. Handmade ropes cascade from radiant garden rake armatures. Found objects abound, simultaneously being cultural, formal, and figurative. A pair of plastic funnels doubles as breasts; forks and spoons serve as a warp; and cassette tapes hang from '80s-style chain necklaces. Everyday trinkets and cultural markers blend seamlessly with Samat's intricate weaves, creating a family mythology that transcends time and geography.

Samat’s most recent museum exhibitions include solo shows at Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita State University, Kansas (2026); 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. Her work was most recently included in an exhibition at the House of World Cultures (HKW), Berlin, Germany (2025). She had solo presentations at PLATFORM, Art SG, Singapore (2026) and at the Meridians sector at Art Basel Miami Beach (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), the Sydney Biennale (2024), and the Indian Ocean Craft Triennial (IOTA) 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.