Profile

Jalaini Abu Hassan, or “Jai”, is a renowned Malaysian contemporary artist. He is an important and influential figure in Malaysian visual art circles and academia. A process painter, Jalaini explores the act of creation that goes into forming a series of bodies of work, experimenting with materials and mediums in his attempt to investigate and portray Malaysian visual vernacular, whose meaning would undoubtedly speak of his identity and culture.

Jalaini obtained his Bachelor of Art & Design (Fine Art) in 1985 from Universiti Teknologi MARA Shah Alam Selangor, Malaysia. He then furthered his postgraduate studies in London at the prestigious Slade School of Fine Art at the University College of London (UCL), England, in 1986. In 1992, he continued to pursue his MA in Fine Art at the Pratt Institute in New York City before returning to Malaysia in 1994 to teach at ITM (UiTM). After twenty years in academia, he was awarded the University Academic Award in 2017, followed by the National Academic Award in 2018, and completed his PhD in Art and Design (Fine Art) in 2023.

Jalaini taught painting at the College of Creative Arts, University Technology MARA for more than 27 years and held a senior position at the graduate school studio research department. He was appointed as an adjunct professor at the University Malaya Faculty of Visual Art and the board member of the National Art Gallery since 2021. His work was referred to as credentials in the domain of creative practice by institutions & establishments including Khazanah Malaysia, CENDANA, ArtScience, Malaysia Academy of Science & National Art Gallery.

 Acclaimed at home and internationally Jai has held solo exhibitions in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the U.K., and the U.S., where he showcased ‘Bangsawan Kebangsaan’ at Tyler Rollins Fine Art Gallery in New York City in 2010. Held over twenty-five solo exhibitions, Jai’s work is a tableaux of text and images referencing Malay cosmology, contemporary global culture, nature, and the man-made environment, seen and imagined within the kaleidoscope of Malaysian experience.

Jai’s works are in the collections of the National Art Gallery, Petronas Gallery, Ilham Gallery Malaysia, Khazanah Nasional Gallery, and private and corporate collections around the world. His work ‘Picisan Sejarah’ was showcased in the 2018 ArtJog in Yogyakarta, a prestigious international art event in Indonesia. The work was acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) in Melbourne, Australia

as part of their permanent collection.