Blank Canvas is an independent contemporary arts platform which opened in 2022 in George Town, Penang. While modest in space, it is nevertheless ambitious in its twin aspirations.

Taking inspiration from its location within a UNESCO World Heritage site, Blank Canvas seeks to be a bridge between a richly historical city and its broader environs and the international contemporary art world. It aims to promote greater awareness and appreciation in the region of both local and international contemporary art, and also to encourage international contemporary art practitioners to discover and engage with Penang and the region.

More expansively, Blank Canvas also aspires to be a springboard for exploring, and challenging, the twin fundamental notions of what is art and what can be art. In addition to the conventional visual forms of painting and sculpture, Blank Canvas is eager to explore other media such as photography, performance, installation, sound, and even psychology aka mind games, as well as other experiences heretofore unencountered.

To these ends, this eponymous space is a blank slate. It is continually looking for different ways to serve contemporary art and its constituents – the audience and the artists – as an art gallery, an incubator, a residency, a dialogue venue, and more.

On this journey of exploration and evolution, Blank Canvas is guided by the ethos of collaboration. It is humble in acknowledging that it has to engage widely and deeply with the myriad members of the art community to be effective. But it is also confident that it has something to offer to the art community in return.

In essence, Blank Canvas is an experiential and experimental space. Come explore!