Desmond Mah

Desmond Mah is a neurodivergent Chinese-Australian artist born in Singapore who resides and creates in Boorloo (Perth, Western Australia), located on the unceded land of the Wadjak boodjar. He holds a BA (Hons) in Painting from Loughborough University in the UK and worked in art education before pursuing his career as an artist.

Mah's childhood experiences in Singapore, where he was exposed to Taoist temple culture through his maternal grandmother, have had a significant impact on his art. The temple art featuring the monstrous, the grotesque and the macabre fascinates him. He migrated to Perth in the late 1980s with his father and encountered challenges as an Asian minority in a culturally different environment. These experiences and challenges have not only influenced Mah's perspective and creative vision, but also prepared him to overcome fear.

In 2019, Mah almost lost a family member to suicide. Since then, the family member has been diagnosed with Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). As it turns out, the family member is neurodivergent, which has helped Mah understand his own struggles with anxiety throughout his life. Although Mah is also neurodivergent, he does not explicitly address his disability in his pract...

West Coast Tafe Joondalup '11
Horticulture

National Institute of Education '01
Post Graduate Diploma

Loughborough University '98
Painting

LASALLE College of the Arts '97
Painting

See https://www.desmondmah.com/cv.html