There are three movements serving as a foundation for “Manifest Destiny”. First is racism —skin colour discrimination— where it is believed that those of a particular skin colour possess qualities and traits superior to others of skin colours different than theirs. Second is nationalism and the last one is expansionism, which is rather evident nowadays where certain countries emerged as world leaders in 20th century due to their increasing supplies of lethal weaponry, military resources and intention to initiate war. Such practices are exploited as a means to imposing their own political dogma on others so as to homogenise mankind irrespective of philosophical and cultural differences and to reap benefits for personal advantages deliberately without taking moral and ethical principles into consideration. Or is this the nature of what is called “power”?

Through oil paintings that feature humans and varied events, “Manifest Destiny” is the exhibition that reflects awareness of moral conflicts and ethical principles adhered by humans to justify and legitimise their own actions. Even though people assure that their courses of actions are just and morally justified, what appears in the news every day is, however, dominated by dreadful wars and inhumane crimes. The artist not only expresses these atrocities through the finished paintings but also reveals them since the initial process of sketching by leaving some traces as minuscule blank spaces to be coloured thickly and neatly where each colour stays in its own space without blending with each other. The artist uses this method to reminisce his childhood where he had to apply each colour in the line strictly to each blank space and when all of them were coloured, there emerged the whole picture in front of the young artist. While this approach may restrict his creative potentials, it is perfectly in keeping with the three movements upon which “Manifest Destiny” is based.