ABOUT | DURA KI HANA

Dura Ki Hana

Malaysian Artist | Painting • Illustration • Sculptural Installation

"What begins on the canvas rarely ends there. Through painting, illustration and sculptural forms, I create works built from thousands of individually crafted elements that celebrate wonder, tenderness and hope."

Dura Ki Hana is a Malaysian artist whose practice spans painting, illustration and sculptural installation.

For nearly two decades, she has worked across disciplines including character creation, fashion illustration, textile design and immersive art, creating works inspired by wonder, tenderness and the beauty hidden in everyday life.

Her practice is rooted in repetition. Organic forms are painted, cut, wired and assembled by hand, layer by layer, until they gradually emerge from the surface and take on a sculptural life of their own. Through this labour-intensive process, paintings become immersive works composed of hundreds and sometimes thousands of individually crafted elements, blurring the boundaries between image, object and adornment.

Through her ongoing body of work, Garden of Hopes, she considers what quietly endures. While floral forms appear throughout her work, they are less a subject than a language through which wonder, delight and the possibility of beginning again unfold.

What begins on the canvas often escapes beyond the frame, evolving into sculptural forms and installations that invite viewers not only to observe, but to participate.

People often think she paints flowers.

Perhaps.

But she paints delight.

Selected Exhibitions:
- xOdinary Showcase 2025, at Mitec, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

- For The Love of Arts 2025, Group Exhibition at KLCity Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
- Untamed Bloom 2014, Group Exhibition, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
- Designer's Weekend 2012, Solo Exhibition & Femme Fatale Conference (Speaker)
- Space Womb Contemporary Art Gallery, New York, US
- Pelita Hati, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
- Rantai Art, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
- The Anexxe Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
- INSIGHT@LONDON, Asia Creative Culture Exhibition, Red Gallery,London

I’ve always been fascinated by the idea that our bodies are more than flesh and bone.

They are archives.
They remember.
They adapt and they bloom.
Maybe every petal is simply a memory that has learned another language.

#DuraKiHana
#GardenOfHopes
#ContemporaryArt
#MixedMediaArt
#FigurativeArt

Can beauty grow in a place where something painful once lived?
Some gardens don’t appear after spring.
They appear after survival.
#DuraKiHana #gardenofhopes #illustration

Dear girl,
I wonder what your eyes notice now.
Do they still chase beautiful things?
Or have they started looking for the stories hidden beneath them?

I wonder what these years have quietly placed in your hands…
And what they’ve gently asked you to let go.
#durakihana #gardenofhopes #illustration #bloomgirl

Perhaps everyone is carrying a room inside them that no one has ever been invited to enter.
#illustration #DuraKiHana

Revisiting old works and letting them bloom through the language I paint today.

This drawing has been quietly sitting with me for years. Looking at it now, I don’t see something unfinished. I see something that was simply waiting for another season.

Who knows what else has been quietly waiting all these years? 🌸

#GardenOfHopes #ContemporaryArt #MixedMedia #illustration #DuraKiHana

Who knew one petal would turn into an entire garden?
I blame the obsessive artist in me.🌸
#durakihana #gardenofhopes #petals #contemporanyart

We’ve been documenting our honey events since 2024, and it’s time to share the highlights.

Honey Salone started simply because I wanted people to experience the raw taste of local wild honey. It turns out, putting varieties like Kelulut, Gelam, and Tualang on a table triggers a lot of great conversations and genuine reactions.

This reel is a mashup of those spaces, the people, and the energy from our past sessions. More to come very soon.
www.eathoneypretty.com

#HoneySalone #EatHoneyPretty #wildbeehoney #Tualanghoney #honeyandartsensory

There were times I believed I had lost it.
The drive, the spark, the certainty that once came easily.
But maybe it was never lost.
Maybe it was changing form.
Or maybe it had to become quieter
so I could hear it differently.

There is an energy in not abandoning myself. In continuing, even when the work feels unclear. In trusting that something is shifting even when I cannot yet see what it is becoming.

I notice now that the smallest shifts
change everything.
#durakihana #gardenofhopes

Abyss in Bloom came from a time where life wasn’t light, but it wasn’t falling apart either. It reflects that in-between space where you keep going, and small things still grow, even when something feels unresolved.

I wanted to see how Abyss in Bloom lives in a real space, in normal light, with everyday objects around it because that’s where those moments usually exist.

DM me if you’d like to know more.
#durakihana #abstractart #gardenofhopes #contemporaryart

Tropical Opulence. Hidden in the Wild.

This label design honors the spirit of Tualang honey. It is wild, floral, deep, and rare.
Tualang is not just a tree. It is an ecosystem of life.
High in the rainforest canopy, flavor is something you discover, not simply taste.

Gathered with respect. Treasured for its natural richness.
To experience it is to step into the quiet luxury of the forest itself.

⸻

Sommelier Edition

Created for those who appreciate honey through origin, aroma, and character.
No two batches are the same and that is the beauty.

Each harvest is chosen based on:
• The season the bees foraged
• The wild blooms available at that moment
• The depth and finish of its flavor

This honey reflects the rainforest exactly as it was. It’s climate, flora and the bee’s instinctive pathways.

Best enjoyed slowly, where you can truly notice its layers:
• With warm bread
• With cheeses or fresh fruit
• Or simply, one thoughtful spoonful at a time
#labeldesign #printdesign #eathoneypretty #durakihana #design #illustration

Anatomy of Joy × Bloomwear, 2025

It began quietly with brushstrokes that didn’t know where they were heading, only that they needed to move. I painted, layered, and blended, watching the colours merge and find their own rhythm. I never knew how they would turn out until they dried, and by the time I came back the next day, they had already become something else. Softer, more certain and alive.

In ‘Anatomy of Joy’, I wasn’t chasing beauty; I was tracing emotion. The repetition, the rhythm, the push and pull between chaos and calm, that’s where I found it. Joy, I realised, isn’t a single moment of brightness. It’s an accumulation of softness after struggle, of colour after silence.

The process was slow, deliberate, almost meditative. Each gesture a small act of defiance against numbness. Each layer a quiet reclaiming of something once forgotten. This painting isn’t a celebration of joy fully bloomed; it’s a study of its anatomy about the fragile and fierce pieces that make it possible.

Then came ‘Bloomwear’ a continuation, but louder, more alive. I wanted to pull the painting off the wall, to let it breathe and stand on its own. The wired corset became a skeleton, the petals a quiet rebellion against what once confined them. I built it the way we build ourselves after collapse: fragile at first, then defiant, then unapologetically radiant.

There’s a rhythm to the tedious and a tenderness in repetition that teaches patience, presence, and surrender. Every cut, every fold, every delicate edge carries a trace of that quiet persistence.

Maybe that’s what my work is really about: the discipline of softness. The courage it takes to rebuild joy, not as perfection, but as something that still dares to bloom.
-Dura Ki Hana
#GardenofHopes #mixedmedia #artinstallation #sculpturalartinstallation #bloomwear #a4artfair2025 #xordinary

Bloomwear, 2025
Sculptural Art Installation
Mixed media
Dura Ki Hana x Dura Z

—
We’ve all been there. Somewhere between collapse and creation, fixing ourselves with tape and stubborn grace. Bloomwear was born in that space.

It began with wires and petals, but really, it was a dare — to make something louder than the silence I’d learned to live with. To wear joy, not just feel it from afar.

We, women, know this language too well. Rebuilding beauty from what once bent us. Every petal I wired, every curve I shaped, was a small defiance, a wink to every version of us that ever thought she was too much, too fragile, or too late.

The corset holds form, the petals rebel and somewhere between structure and surrender, we find joy again. Not the tidy kind. The loud kind. The glitter-on-your-fingers kind.

I made Bloomwear to remember what it feels like to breathe in colour again. To play. To dare softness.

Because sometimes, art isn’t something we make.
It’s something we become.
This art installation is a collaboration between my sister and I. #a4artfair #durakihana #bloomwear #gardenofhopes #mixedmedia #sculpturalart #artinstallation #artandfashion #xordinary

@a4artfair @___xordinary
30th October - 2nd November 2025 @gmbb.kl

Finishing “Anatomy of Joy” with a small ritual. A wax seal and gold tassel at the back. It’s my way of saying thank you to the piece, for teaching me what joy feels like again. A little sign of closure, a quiet mark of gratitude for what this piece has carried. #gardenofhopes #DuraKiHana #abstractartist

Arranging colors feels like gathering tiny bits of hope back into place. #gardenofhopes #durakihana #petals #abstractart #emotionallandscape #organicabstraction #a4artfair

Each piece carries the echo of a storm I once walked through… reminders that even the heaviest rains can grow wild gardens.
#illustrations #contemporaryart #durakihana #drawing #femaleart #xordinary #a4art #femaleartist

Behind every bloom, there’s a thousand tiny acts of healing. #gardenofhopes #DuraKiHana #abstractart #contemparyart

You don’t always need to know how it’ll turn out. Just trust the rhythm, the mess and the in-between. That’s where the magic sneaks in. #workinprogress #durakihana #gardenofhopes #abstractart #InstallationArt

If you’ve ever felt like giving up, so do petals
They wilt, they break, but they never forget how to bloom again…
#gardenofhopes #DuraKiHana #abstractart #bloomwithgrace

A little color choreography… #petals #gardenofhopes #organicabstraction #durakihana

Not all was lost. Somewhere , some petals are blooming again.
In the hush between colours, they learn the rhythm of becoming.
In quiet rebellion, they unfold. Not to please, but to exist beautifully. #abstractart #durakihana #contemporaryart #gardenofhopes

There’s something healing about being surrounded by art. At CIMB Artober, every piece had a story, and together they reminded me why creativity connects us all. #cimbartober #contemparyart #malaysiaartscene #melindalooi #anisaarab #annekoh

Meeting Ms. Anne Koh at CIMB Artober touched me in a way I didn’t expect. As she spoke about her art, it felt like she was also speaking about life, how our journeys are layered with joy, pain, growth, and hope. It reminded me that all of us, in our own ways, are creating something meaningful out of our experiences. Her words were art in themselves, and they made me pause, breathe, and feel grateful for this shared human journey. Thank you for your kind words @annekoh_

#CIMBArtober2025 #cimbartoberartandsoul #annekoh

Title: Blooming Through Stillness
For Kita Orang Blue and White 400 2025 International Group Exhibition.

- This work is a contemporary abstraction inspired by the resilient spirit of the plum blossom, a revered motif in Ming dynasty porcelain. Rather than depicting the flower in literal form, I sought to channel its emotional and symbolic essence, the strength to bloom through winter and the quiet defiance of beauty against harshness.

The organic repetitive brushstrokes and layered crimsons represent petals in motion—alive, trembling, yet grounded. The white spaces are intentional, drawing from the liubai (留白) tradition in classical Chinese painting, where silence and pause give form its meaning. This visual rhythm mirrors the organic, non-linear flow of plum branches as painted on porcelain, unpredictable yet harmonious.

By abstracting the blossom and dissolving it into layered textures, I invite the viewer to see beyond the form, into the emotion and philosophy embedded in the original motif: perseverance, quiet strength, and the promise of renewal.

Look closely. Then look sideways.

The stitched dots quietly rise like echoes on petals. They are softly textured, almost hidden, until the light catches them.
Each one traces a memory, like touching something long remembered but barely seen.

The more I journey into this piece, the more it reveals itself to me.

Beneath the layers of petals and quiet threads, there’s a gentle melancholy like the echo of something once cherished, now only remembered.

It’s not sadness exactly, but a soft ache… the kind that lingers in still moments, between light and shadow.

Sometimes, I think the textures hold memories better than I do.

#DuraKiHana #kitaorangblueandwhite400 #artshowcase #abstractart #GardenofHopes #embroidery #contemporaryart

“Blooming Through Stillness” 🌸💙
For Kita Orang: Blue & White, I turned to the plum blossom of Ming porcelain. Not just decoration, the blossom was painted as a symbol of resilience. Blooming in the dead of winter, carrying quiet defiance and the promise of renewal.

My petals are not literal flowers, but fragments of that spirit. They are layered, trembling, fragile yet unbroken. Scattered across them, stitched dots rise like hidden constellations, like scars, like seeds. They are small treasures you only notice when the light shifts.

I thought of the shipwrecks that once carried porcelain across oceans. Beneath the sea, beauty slept for centuries, shattered, buried, yet never gone. What survives is more than clay or glaze; it is memory, resilience, the echo of hands that once painted blossoms into permanence.

This piece listens to those echoes and honors the treasures that endure in silence: petals, porcelain, and the quiet strength that binds them both.

✨ Full story and exhibition work tomorrow 💙🤍 @kitaorangbluewhite400 #kitaorangblueandwhite400 #abstractart #DuraKiHana #artshowcase

We Are Tears and Flowers
There are moments when life feels like it holds us in its quiet hands. Fragile, trembling, yet full of hidden strength.
We are born of both softness and storms, and maybe that is what makes us human: we are tears, and we are flowers.
Life moves in seasons. Sometimes we are drenched in ache, other times we are bathed in light.
The petals open, close, and open again. Each layer carrying both memory and hope.
Maybe the tears are the water, and the flowers the bloom. Maybe both belong to the same garden, the same soil, the same longing for light.
And when we look closely, perhaps this is where resilience takes root. In the fragile veins of petals that hold both ache and beauty.
So I ask:
What are the storms you carry within?
Which petals are you ready to let unfold?
And where do you see your own Garden of Hopes beginning to bloom?
🌸 www.durakihana.com/blog

#abstractart #durakihana #gardenofhopes #contemporaryart #xordinary #abstractpainting #healingthroughart

Forged in delicacy, tempered in strength. The corset is not a cage, but a crown; an eternal architecture of femininity for those unafraid to be both muse and monarch.
#durakihana #illustration #softluxury #softpower #boudoirseries #contemporarymuse #luxurycorsetry #fashionillustrations

📌New painting
Title: Abyss in Bloom, 2025
Medium: Acrylic and silver leaf on canvas
Size: 48” x 48”

What if the ache never leaves, only learns how to bloom quietly within you, like a wound turned secret garden? Abyss in Bloom is a quiet meditation on contrast, where darkness becomes fertile ground for unseen beauty. In this piece, I guide you through an emotional terrain shaped by restraint, repetition, and silence.

Layered petals press themselves against bare branches, fragile yet unyielding, trembling under the weight of longing, sorrow, and time. Acrylic and silver leaf catch fleeting glimmers of light like shards of hope, while matte pigments swallow everything else, heavy and mute. Each stroke is confession. Each layer, a soft scream, a devotion, a ritual of survival. Repetition is obsession, repetition is survival, repetition is how we endure when words fail.

The petals are built deliberately, never scattered, like fragments of heart pieced together from loss. The branches rise like veins stripped bare yet stubbornly holding everything like holding memory, holding grief, holding life itself. Pain is palpable here. Tenderness survives in the cracks. The palette used such as Prussian Blue, Ultramarine, Violet, Terre Rouge, soft black, pale whites, glints of silver pulls you deep into a quiet storm, a suspended space where sorrow and beauty collide and fuse.

Abyss in Bloom is an invitation to linger in the unresolved, to sit with the ache until it blooms quietly, beautifully, almost dangerously within you. Even from the abyss, light can flicker. Even from grief, life can unfurl. Even in silence, something fierce and trembling can grow.

#ContemporaryPainting #AbstractArt #DuraKiHana
#AcrylicPainting #LayeredArt #EmotiveArt #EmergingArtist #GalleryArt #ArtCurators #FineArtCollectors #AbyssInBloom #organicabstraction

We may tremble, edges loose, yet the rhythm persists.
Through the flutter and the quiet, we discover our pulse.

My love… why do you doubt yourself?
You are the soft place, the gentle pause between heartbeats.
Can you feel the constellation tracing your soul?
Visit my website to read more: https://www.durakihana.com/post/to-the-one-sitting-with-her-shadow

#durakihana #art
#artstudio #abstractartist

Dark, decadent, and dangerously good. ✨
Nirwana savors Bloom au Noir, letting the wildflower buzz linger.

Featuring our Velvet Bloom Kelulut Honey, from stingless bees to silky cacao, Bloom au Noir is a delicious conversation between forest nectar and artisan chocolate.

Nirwana’s verdict: divine. 💛
Crafted in collaboration with Chocolatier: @kiepatisserie_ 🍫🐝

Coming Soon…

#BloomAuNoir #VelvetBloom #KelulutHoney #ArtisanChocolate #ChocolateLovers #HoneyConnoisseur #honneysommelier #eathoneypretty

Florist hopping on a Sunday because we’re on a mission for petals! 🌸
Let the flower hunt begin! #florist #eathoneypretty #bloomingflowers

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@durakihana

Dura Ki Hana

Malaysian Artist | Painting • Illustration • Sculptural Installation

"What begins on the canvas rarely ends there. Through painting, illustration and sculptural forms, I create works built from thousands of individually crafted elements that celebrate wonder, tenderness and hope."

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