Zearo’s practice is rooted in an autobiographical perspective shaped by his Southeast Asian heritage. Exploring longing, desire, memory, and masculinity, his works trace the shifting dimensions of queer relationships across psychological spaces that oscillate between private interiors and broader social realms.
In intimate scenes, male figures often appear at domestic thresholds — staircases, windows, doorways — poised between revelation and concealment. These recurring figures navigate shifting states of being, exploring the psychological terrain of self-confrontation and the lingering presence of others. Fetishised and everyday objects recur as traces, gaining symbolic weight as markers of intimacy, loss, and desire. By contrast, his group compositions capture the subtle tensions, exchanges, and connections that arise within shared spaces, revealing the rhythms and relationships of bodies in relation to one another. Together, these approaches open a spectrum of queer experience, spanning the private and the communal, the personal and the politically resonant.
Zearo’s spatial imagination draws on medieval compositional structures and the drifting perspectives of Chinese handscrolls. His interiors function as both architectural containers and psychological landscapes, where stories unfold through fractured yet continuous narratives. His use of chalk pastels alludes to the pixel: each stroke transcends its individuality to build a collective visual rhythm greater than the sum of its parts. The fragility of the medium — and the care it demands — mirrors the transience and tenderness of human presence.
Zearo was born in 1996 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He currently lives and works in London, UK. In 2023, he obtained his MA in painting from the Royal College of Art. Recent solo exhibitions include: If I pass right by here, Linseed Projects, Shanghai, China 2024; in dust time, The Sunday Painter, London, UK 2023. Recent group exhibitions include: Tangible, Subtitle Labs, London, UK 2024; X Collection 202, Portrait of a Man', X Museum, Beijing, China, 2024; ART SG, Hive Center for Contemporary Art, Marina Bay Sands, Singapore (2024); YA!, 3812 Gallery, London, UK (2023); Across & Over, HSBC HQ, London, UK (2023); Tightrope, The Bomb Factory ArtFoundation, London, UK (2023); Wild is the Wind, Hew Hood Gallery, London, UK (2023); Royal College of Art Degree Show, Truman Brewery, London, UK(2023); Ruth Borchard Self Portrait Prize (2023); Bloomberg New Contemporaries, South London Gallery, London, UK (2022); Bloomberg New Contemporaries, Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, UK (2022); Come One Come All, The Function Suite, London, UK (2022); RAW-RCA WIP Show, Soho Revue, London, UK (2021); Lingua Franker- A Shiftiest Show, HOXTON 253, London, UK (2021); Set In Motion, G13 Gallery, Selangor, Malaysia (2019); Got It For Cheap, Dateline Gallery,Colorado, USA (2019); Art Salon, Artesque, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (2018); Platform III - Thrownness (Geworfenheit), Galeri Chandan, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia(2017); Refraction, OUR ArtProjects, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (2017); School of Thought, White Box, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (2017). In 2022, his work was acquired by the Government Art Collection.