Khai Liew's cultural mix from Adelaide furniture studio shows 'beauty is goodness written in matter'
Khai Liew with his entry for the 2015 Rigg Design Prize at the National Gallery of Victoria.
Image courtesy NGV Melbourne
From an understated studio in the Adelaide suburb of Norwood, Khai Liew’s furniture designs have been exhibited at worldwide institutions including the Victoria and Albert and Design museums, London, and the Triennale di Milano., as well as many Australian permanent collections.
Acknowledged in 2017 as one of 25 South Australian icons by the Design Institute of Australia, Liew brought a “sense of beautiful proportion” from his childhood home in Malaysia when he arrived in Adelaide at age 18.
But his Chinese-Malay influences were overlaid in Adelaide by becoming an expert in Australian colonial furniture. This came from collecting and restoring it simply to finance his university education. “It took me to country towns and auctions and the back streets of Tasmania. The furniture was unappreciated. I could fill a van for $100 and there was a limitless supply.”
After years working as a conservator and dealer specialising in colonial furniture, Liew began buying Danish furniture and studying mid-century furniture construction as well. This led to his first commission by then Art Gallery of South Australia director Ron Radford for gallery benches. It was closely followed by Liew’s first solo exhibition Long Weekend at JamFactory in 2001. Liew’s work also has joined the collections at the National Gallery in Canberra and Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum.
Liew’s studio, run with partner Nichole Palyga, drew on wider international styles: ancient Egyptian chairs, 14th century linenfold, Shaker austerity, 19th Century arts and craft, and Chinese and Japanese construction – but with the modernist reduction of Scandinavian design and abiding by the maxim: “Beauty is goodness written in matter”.
Liew’s – and Australia’s – biggest private commission was from Sydney Chinese art dealer and collector Judith Neilson for 190 pieces, including a 16-metre dining table of Brazilian cherry wood, 60 hand-carved dining chairs, rugs, standard lamps and table lighting, made without any restrictions and named Indigo Slam.
Liew’s most significant collaborative undertaking was the 2010 Collec+ors exhibition, at the Art Gallery of South Australia, that later toured to the London Design Museum. Liew saw it as a personal homage to South Australian artists such as Bruce Nuske, Jessica Loughlin, Julie Blyfield and Kirsten Coelho who had inspired him.
