GEORGE TOWN, Oct. 6 -- When you look at Maizul Affendy Baharuddin's paintings in Rabak Series Volume 1, you get a sense that grief is like a dark cave with the turbulent smudges of colours representing the struggle to make sense of a world gone dark.

Maizul locked himself in his studio for more than two years as he grappled with the loss of close friends and his own siblings in 2020 and 2021.

"It was as if I locked myself inside a 'cave', it was all dark and full of destruction within. I was so overcome with grief, I could not bring myself to do anything initially," he said when explaining the dark theme of his works.

The 45-year-old eventually found little slivers of light in his life by pouring his emotions into his work.

"As you ca...