![]() Zacharevic’s most notable work is “Kids on a bicycle” located on Armenian Street in George Town, Penang. Kenji credits artist Ernest Zacharevic for the growing popularity of murals and street art in Malaysia. But since I’ve already been ‘baptised’ into street murals, I get very perfectionist when I do graffiti.” So, sometimes the art can be quite messy and cluttered. They choose to become vandals, and they aim to ‘destroy’ the property. These artists don’t usually gel with the mural artists, because ultimately it’s not about earning money. “But most artists go down the first branch, the ‘true’ graffiti artists. “Street artists use spray cans to paint so that it becomes their own,” Kenji explains. Today, street art has evolved so much that there are different branches of it: ‘real graffiti art’, which is technically still illegal and murals or ‘paid street art’, considered good in the eyes of the authorities and are usually pieces that have been commissioned. Kenji admits that times have changed since he first picked up the can of spray paint in his youth. I mean, it started out as just a hobby for me.” Street art today, according to Kenji Chai “I told my old boss at the time that if I couldn’t make it, I would come back to work for him, so I gave myself a one-year time limit - but then ten years later, here we are! I never thought it would turn out to be this big. And that’s why I keep doing it, even now.” In 2013, Kenji embarked on a new path - starting up his own company for mural and street art. It just made me feel so much better about myself. “Once I started spray-painting on the wall, it took me back to that feeling I had when I was doodling in school. #Nukit studio how to“This was, like, twelve years ago, and he taught me how to spray-paint,” says Kenji. Kenji spray-painting “The Rojak Jungle” at The Upper House Hotel in Penang. After an encounter with a friend where Kenji expressed his discontent with his work, he was introduced to someone who, as fate would have it, had recently quit his job in graphic design for a life of graffiti. Ironically, he explains, working tediously on the computer day in, day out created a huge disconnect from the art he was making. He equates it to “having a gap between the monitor and himself”. It didn’t take long for Kenji to feel worn out by his life as a graphic designer. There is such a big limitation of creativity and it feels like you can’t do anything.” You can’t change things however you like. The colours, the logos… everything’s already set. Later, after I got out, I realised that in the field there are boundaries. I took graphic design just to get it over with. “It was either that or interior design for me. “I didn’t have much of a choice,” he says. So, Kenji went down the path of graphic design to acquire a day job. To live off of the art one creates is not always enough to make ends meet. The concept of the struggling artist, however, is a very real thing and Kenji Chai understands the view well. All I knew was that I loved doing this… art, and drawing.” ![]() ![]() It was that feeling - you know the kind of feeling when you believe something is meant for you? I didn’t know it yet at the time. “Suddenly, without realising, time passed so fast and the school bell was ringing. “When I was doodling, it’s like I was in the zone,” he says. And like all artists, Kenji’s passion comes from recognising art as his highest calling. That’s actually most important - you need to be sure of that before you start anything.” Image from talks of his own love of art with the same mood of inexpressible joy that artists all over the world share. “Of course, you also have to love what you do. “I learned early on that pursuing art as a career takes a lot of perseverance and hard work,” says Kenji. Kenji’s story makes it difficult not to revisit the ‘lazy student turned delinquent’ stereotype - but while he may have been easily bored with his studies, Kenji is far from idle. Fast forward a decade later and Kenji is dabbling in graffiti art, avoiding getting caught by authorities. It is the early 1990s: the dawning era of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Street Fighter, and a young Kenji Chai is doodling the characters in his textbook at school, in the middle of a class he is not paying attention to. He shares his take on the evolution of street art today. Our September digital cover star, Kenji Chai, opens up about his relentless journey from graphic designer to graffiti artist and muralist. ![]()
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