Unfinished is a group exhibition presented at MassHaus, an artist-run studio and exhibition space, during Penang Long Art Weekend. The exhibition brings together contemporary artists whose works remain incomplete, paused, or unresolved, offering insight into artistic process and viewer perception.
In artistic practice, unfinished artworks are usually confined to the studio understood by the artist as provisional, uncertain, or unresolved. When these works are encountered by a public audience, however, they are often perceived as complete. Meaning is projected, intention is assumed, and resolution is constructed through context rather than confirmation.
Presented within an open studio environment, Unfinished challenges conventional exhibition formats by collapsing the boundary between making and showing. The studio functions not as a neutral backdrop, but as an active condition that shapes how artworks are read and understood. By resisting the expectation of polish or closure, the exhibition allows unfinishedness to remain visible and unresolved.
Rather than defining what constitutes a finished artwork, Unfinished invites viewers to reflect on their own role in completing a work through perception, assumption, and interpretation. The exhibition raises questions around authorship, intention, and whether completion exists with the artist, the object, or the viewer.
Unfinished is part of the Penang Long Art Weekend program and is presented alongside an open studio at MassHaus.
Participating artists:
Aboud Fares, Ain, Ariel Ong, Bibichun, Cloris Wong, Dhavinder Singh, Eeyan Chuah, Ernest Zacharevic, Esther Geh, Eryn, Fakhrur, Hao Yuan Cheng, IMMJN, Kangblabla, Sharon SS Kow, Sheena Liam, Shin Yen Neoh, Stephen Teoh, Sumidik, Tazon, Thomas Powell, Trina Teoh, Wong Hoy Cheong.