Upon kind invitation, Jessica Reid (Marketing Assistant) and Heather Wells (Production Manager) went along to a very welcoming gallery in Southwark, near Southbank, called Nolia’s Gallery. The place is run by a vibrant Malaysian female artist called Nolia, who also owns another gallery – we are told opposite Gordon Ramsey’s restaurant.

The downstairs gallery held the ‘Malaysian Eye’ exhibition displaying fine art by 38 Malaysian artists. Waiting for the event to commence, we had a look upstairs where Undergraduate work from the borough was displayed in the café/restaurant run by one of Nolia’s daughters.  We also stumbled across her venue where she typically hosts jazz nights.

Back downstairs Khairul from MATRADE (Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation) gave an introduction to the event, taking questions from the audience. In his talk he explained the history of Malaysian art and how one major aspect of trade is the promotion of artists.

Among us were people from all spheres of creativity including Brazilian multimedia artist Marcia Mar, photographer Stefan Lubomirski, British filmmaker John Park and we even had a face reader (!), called Carole Railton.

Nolia spoke about her diverse background in the arts, as well as music and told us her passion for encouraging and nurturing new and young talent, something that The London Magazine equally supports.

We were then taken by taxi to Tukdin restaurant, the best Malaysian restaurant as recommended by our new Malaysian friends! We were treated to chicken satay, sweet and sour fish, garlic chicken, fragrant rice and spicy beef. This was finished off with banana fritters and caramel icecream. It was at this point that Nolia told us that her daughter, Zoe Devlin was on this year’s X Factor.

A very pleasant afternoon with special thanks to Why Not? (PR), Nolia’s Gallery (and Nolia herself) and Khairul and Rose from MATRADE.