MyWomensArt: Making Visible What Is Invisible

WE’RE sure many of you have seen Tweets from twitter user @MyWomensArt, an account that carefully curates art produced by Malaysian women. Although the account is only a couple of months old, it has quickly grown a following, raking up to as many as 1.5K followers since its emergence in mid September 2016. The wonderful account displays art in its various forms; paintings, photography, poetry and a plentiful array of others.

Earlier this week, we had the honour of talking to MyWomensArt and getting to know a little bit more about their cause– Spotlighting Malaysian women in the arts– which includes identifying the factors that have hindered female artists from being recognised by the rest of Malaysia. Some of you may have heard of Rosalind Foo— her watercolour pieces is rare and hard to find. This lead us to question, why are women artists and their work are badly documented in art history? What are the barriers that prevent women artists from being visible?

Realising the noticeable absence of women in Malaysian art spaces and art history was what inspired the initiation of the MyWomensArt project and it has been the support of the people that has helped them to soldier on. It can get hard sometimes to keep up with the pace of frequently tweeting out artwork for people to see. 

When asked how MyWomensArt tackles the problem of running out of artwork to share, they said “Talking to different people in different fields in the arts, and trying our best to do some digging and research, we’ll get there.”

They also open their DMs on Twitter for the public to give leads or tips regarding Malaysian female artists– be them newfound or long-existing. It’s up to all of us to contribute the little knowledge we have to help them preserve and represent the works of Malaysian female artists. If you’re wondering if they accept artwork contributions, they do! The would love to have a look at your art and possibly even tweet it out.

MyWomensArt acknowledges that art is a diverse and expansive field which is why they don’t just share photographs of paintings– which is what most people associate art with.

MyWomensArt is definitely an initiative that’s worth paying attention to. By following their account, you get to be a part of the fight towards female representation in the arts industry. They’re success has proven that the people are on their side. Perhaps in the future, they’ll even publish a book that will serve as a compilation of artworks. Keep charging forward, MyWomensArt!

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All featured artwork is courtesy of MyWomensArt. Article header is by Yuki Tham titled Light It Up, 2015. Thank you MyWomensArt for taking the time to answer our questions!

To get a piece of art from Malaysian women daily, follow . To further contact them, drop them an email at . 

P/S: Check out another piece we did about MyWomensArt last year.