Twenty-one deserving young talents who won places in the inaugural MR DIY Art Competition 2022, received their prizes worth over RM30,000 at a prize-giving ceremony held in 1 Utama Shopping Centre, Petaling Jaya recently.
Mohd Syazwan Abd Rahim, 28, from Shah Alam emerged as the Grand Prize winner with his artwork ‘Upside Down’, and won RM10,000.
Koo Yean Ni, 28, Subang Jaya won the RM6,000 Judges’ Pick Award for her artwork ‘Bersama-sama, Together We Are Stronger’, while Nur Ain Amirah Mohd Nazir, 23, Kelantan, won the CEO’s Choice Award for her artwork ‘Kahwin Era Pandemik’ and received RM4,000.
The retailer also awarded five recipients in each of the following categories – MR DIY Young Talent, the People’s Choice Award, the Special Mention Award, and MR DIY. Junior Talent (Primary/Secondary).
The competition attracted thousands of entries from all over Malaysia including Sabah and Sarawak.
The submissions were judged by an esteemed panel of judges which included celebrated award-winning artists Fauzan Omar, Safrizal Sharir and Leong Mei Yin, as well as Bingley Sim, a renowned art collector and critic, who has been on the panel of a number of art competitions.
MR D.I.Y. group chief executive officer Adrian Ong said the competition was aimed to cultivate an appreciation for Malaysian art, and inspire a rich and diverse creative ecosystem.
“Malaysia has a great pool of creative talents but there aren’t many platforms for them to showcase their abilities to a wider audience. As a homegrown Malaysian brand, MR DIY wants to provide a sustainable platform for this talent to be nurtured and grown. It is one of the many ways we seek to add value to Malaysia and the lives of Malaysians. We hope many other organisations will step up to do the same,” he said.
