The Art of Khik Weng Keat

Extreme Frontier , acrylic on canvas, 2024. 36" X 36" The artist intends to highlight the scope of humanity’s exploration of the Solar System by including spacecraft among the nine planets. Most of the spacecraft (including the Vostok, Space Shuttle, International Space Station and Tiangong Space Station) are near the Earth’s orbit, some spacecraft landed on the Moon, while an unmanned space probe (Voyager 2) can be seen exploring the outer planets. The painting is further modified with the addition of animals based on constellations, namely Aries (ram); Taurus (bull); Cancer (crab), Leo (lion), Scorpio (scorpion), Sagittarius (centaur), Capricorn (goat) and Pisces (goldfish). This is a reference to the constellations' depiction in ancient star charts, which made them easier to identify and understand, aiding in navigation.  Our expanding understanding of the cosmos has the capacity to alter humankind's perception of its place in the universe, and the intention to exp

  Dino-Go-Round , acrylic on canvas, 2024. 24" X 16.5" This painting is inspired by the Blue Sky Carousel at Genting Skyworlds, and features a prehistoric-themed carousel with prehistoric animals in the place of popular carousel animals. Dinosaur heads are used as the decorations at the top. The "customers" in the artwork are various species of prehistoric primates.  This artwork is the artist's first attempt at incorporating paleo-art with "genre" art, which is combining prehistoric animals with aspects of contemporary lifestyles.  

  Mesozoic Mariners , acrylic on canvas, 2024. 24" X 16.5" The artwork depicts a Tyrannosaurus swimming past a scenery of marine life from the Mesozoic era. The artist intends to show the breaking of the boundaries between two different worlds, as the T. rex , a land creature, is shown to be able to swim. This act has been backed by fossil evidence - scientists found both ripple marks and mud cracks in a riverbed, indicating the dinosaur was swimming against a current, and noticed distinct claw marks that stretched 50 feet apart from each other, showing the T. rex  may occasionally have paddled long distances through water. Additionally, the dinosaur's hollow bones would have allowed it to swim. The aquatic creatures in the artwork include: Globidens , a mosasaur Platypterygius , an ichthyosaur Hydrotherosaurus , a plesiosaur Macropoma , small members of the coelacanth family Psephoderma , turtle-like placodonts Hybodus , a primitive shark Pachydiscus , an ammonite  Bacu