MARCOS KUEH

Early years and background

Kueh grew up in Sarawak, on the island of Borneo, surrounded by local visual culture, mythologies and textile traditions that would later become central to his practice. After an early career in graphic design and advertising, he moved to the Netherlands to study at the Royal Academy of Art (KABK), The Hague, completing a Bachelor’s in Graphic and Textile Design in 2022 and settling there as an artist.

Marcos Kueh artworks

Marcos Kueh’s artworks use textiles as a storytelling medium, expanding Borneo’s ancestral weaving languages into contemporary, often monumental tapestries that fuse folk motifs with the visual rhetoric of global branding and digital culture. Working on both jacquard looms and hand processes, he explores themes of decolonisation, cultural memory, prosperity, environmental precarity and the stereotypes attached to ‘third-world’ labour, often suspending his woven works overhead so viewers walk through them like an invented city or rainforest of advertisements.

Ancestral weaves and ‘textile billboards’

Kueh’s practice began with a search for familiarity in the textile workshop at KABK, where he explored Bornean weaving techniques alongside industrial jacquard production, treating textiles as a bridge between past and present. He describes his large, graphic tapestries as ‘woven billboards’ that imagine what global visual culture might look like if Borneo, rather than Western metropolises, were the centre of the world, reframing local myths, flora and deities with the scale and punch of commercial advertising.

Postcolonial narratives and ‘Three Contemporary Prosperities’

Across works such as the ongoing ‘Three Contemporary Prosperities’ series, Kueh reinterprets traditional Chinese and Southeast Asian prosperity deities as hyper-contemporary figures, reflecting on wealth, migration, hustle culture and precarious labour. By layering auspicious symbols, corporate slogans and pop-cultural references into densely patterned weaves, he examines how postcolonial societies negotiate aspiration and pressure, while insisting that textiles and “craft” can carry complex political and philosophical narratives.

Smooth Sailing, Kenyalang Circus and talismanic textiles

Kueh’s first institutional solo exhibition in the UK, Smooth Sailing, 一路順風 at esea contemporary in Manchester, stages immersive textile installations and sculptural elements that draw on maritime metaphors, migration routes and protective charms associated with journeys. Series and works such as Kenyalang Circus and talisman-like woven hangings often feature hornbills, ships and carnival imagery, combining humour and spectacle with reflections on Sarawakian identity, tourism and the commodification of ‘exotic’ cultures.

Select awards and accolades

• Ron Mandos Young Blood Award, Galerie Ron Mandos, Amsterdam (2022)
• Young Designer of the Year, Dutch Design Awards (2023)
• Works held in the collections of Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar, and Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, among other institutions.

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Marcos Kueh exhibitions

Marcos Kueh has presented solo exhibitions and participated in group and biennial projects across Europe and Asia, including textile biennales, design triennials, and contemporary art museums.

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Select solo exhibitions

• Smooth Sailing, 一路順風, esea contemporary, Manchester, UK (2025)
• Kenyalang Circus (various iterations including Nenek Moyang presentations at fairs such as Art SG, Singapore) (2024–2025)
• Behind the Design, GLUE, De Waag, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2024)
• Studio presentations and “open studio” during Art Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands (2023)

Select group exhibitions

• Manifesta 15, The See of Egara, Terrassa / Barcelona, Spain (2024)
• 福禄寿: Three Contemporary Prosperities, Galerie Ron Mandos, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2023)
• When Things are Beings, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Netherlands (2022)
• This far and further, Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar, Netherlands (2022)
• Rijswijk Textile Biennale, Museum Rijswijk, Netherlands (2023–2024)
• Now! Designing in Times of Climate Crisis, International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam, Netherlands (2021)
• Common Threads, The Back Room, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (2020)

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Ocula | 2026