This exhibition focusing more on Dato Lat or Dato Mohamad Nor Khalid his drawings during his employment with the New Straits Times which starts from 1974 until 1984.

At 17, he was already a regular contributor to the Sunday paper Berita Minggu with his Keluarga Si Mamat strip. He had even published own comic books a few years before, and getting paid for them.

Then the re-affirmation would come in 1974, when the regional Asia Magazine published his work in a two-page spread, featuring his experience of undergoing the Sunat (circumcision) ceremony. Lat had a real job by then, as a reporter for the New Straits Times.

In what has become a New Straits Times lore, one of his editors while admiring the work of the erstwhile unknown Lat in the magazine proposed a hunt for the cartoonist with the idea of hiring him, only to be told that he was already on the payroll doing time on the crime beat.

Upon his discovery, Lat was re-designated as a full-time cartoonist with the New Straits Times, a post that did not exist before. He soon began the Scene in Malaysia Life series, which was the first of its kind in Malaysia, a work that was an instant hit for its ability to highlight, in just a few panels, all of our idiosyncrasies. It was Malaysiana with punchlines.

LAT The Pressman starts from 21 December 2020 until 31 January 2021 at Galeri Prima by appointment only.