Leong's oil painting series is based on Leonardo de Vinci's highly prized painting Mona Lisa (c.1503-1505). Not unlike his previous appropriation and transformation of popular image, Leong inscribes different Asian styles onto the Mona Lisa so that the Western Renaissance masterpiece is re-configured.

Ranging across Japanes, Chinese and Indian styles, he has given each portrait an Asian family name which corresponds to the painting style - like many Asian people today, who adopt Western first names but retain their Asian family name. For example, Mona Lisa Tang(1997) possesses colour and motifs which are distinctively Chinese while the convention and stance of the figure belong to the Western tradition of portraiture. Another good example is Mona Lisa Hua, with the figure surrounded by billowing clouds recalling the high position of a goddess. It was purchased by the Australian Palarmment House in 1999.

In this paintings Leong has fused an Asian style with Western tradition, forcing us to approach a Western icon from an Asian perspective.

(by Melissa Chiu, Director of 4A Gallery, Sydney Australia)