The DIFC Art Nights were held on 24th and 25th March at Gate Village, DIFC, Dubai. DIFC Art Night is an event conducted with the collaboration of the Dubai International Financial Centre and the Dubai Government. The art night features unique arts, culture, and entertainment presented by artists worldwide residing in Dubai. The idea of the event is to offer the visitors an exclusive look at brand new art pieces, sculptures, installations and performance themed “The Future is Here”.

It is with proud we can say that this year on DIFC’s 13th edition art night, our Malaysian born Nehsan Selvaraj was given the opportunity to present his art during the two-day event. It was the first time in the history of DIFC Art Night for a Malaysian to showcase his masterpiece.

Participation from the great artists worldwide was never a walk around the park for Nehsan Selvaraj’s art to be selected. He has been trying to present his excellent artworks at DIFC Art Night for the past 2 years, and finally, he was given a chance this year. After the challenging two years this year, Nehsan Selvaraj came up with extraordinary art presentations called ILLUSION LIFE I and ILLUSION LIFE II, which caught the organisers’ attention.

Illusion Life I and II were inspired by “Navarasam” nine emotions. Love, Joy, Wonder, Courage, Peace, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust were the elements of emotions presented in the art. It is the basic emotions that humans would experience in their daily lives.

The lighter colours show healthy and positive emotions such as love, laughter, compatibility, etc. Having healthy and positive emotions makes you shine brighter, demonstrated with the golden specks all over in the artwork—the darker colours portray sadness, depression, loneliness, and fear. But in life, we always strive to find the brighter side. This is human nature. What we see might be not true. What we don’t know might be the lead of our life. This is an illusion, and this is what brings life alive.

The Malaysian artist Nehsan Selvaraj mentioned the timeline to create and complete the artwork took about 12 months. The difficulty of including all the elements of emotions in the painting had to go through multiple layers of painting and patience. Acrylic paints and Gold leaves were among the mixed media used to create this stunning art on canvas. The efforts and dedication he has invested in giving life to this art made the outcome beautiful and a masterpiece.

Nehsan Selvaraj has always found a way to make us Malaysians proud wherever he goes. This time he chose to make us proud in the field of art by presenting his absolute best artwork at DIFC Art Night. What will be his next achievement? While waiting, you can find his masterpiece and the story behind his website www.nehsanselvaraj.com.