The months of August and September have always held a special place in the hearts of Malaysians. In August, we celebrate Merdeka — the nation’s Independence day — with this year being extremely significant as it is the country’s 60th. September 16 celebrates Malaysia Day where we commemorate the establishment of the Malaysian federation on the same date in 1963 as it marked the joining together of Malaya, North Borneo and Sarawak to form Malaysia.

With that, Harper’s BAZAAR Malaysia created a special issue called BAZAAR Art in the month of August to celebrate the movers, shakers and shapers in the Malaysian art scene. We worked especially close with local painter, Sean Lean who created a digital painting for the cover of BAZAAR Art.

Find out the meaning behind the cover and what he hopes Malaysians can take away from this digital masterpiece.

To check out more of Sean’s work, head over here or to his Instagram page.