Abdussalam, Trafficking 3 (2011), 200 x 140. (Courtesy of Expandableg)

Vibrant, joyful and utterly happy, such are the moods that emanate from the paintings in the exhibition titled “Expandableg” at the National Gallery in Jakarta.

Joining two words (expand and the Javanese dableg meaning stubborn) and twisiting their interpretations of the term in a youthful manner, five painters, Ipong Purnama Sidhi, Irawan Karseno, Klowor Waldiyono, Lugiono and Abdussalam, reveal that they staunchly continue to paint as a way of life.

They are all in their 40s and 50s and are known as painters who have not been in the commercial circuit of today. Their works add to the plurality that is making and appreciating art.

“I just want to highlight the positive sides of life,” says Klowor, at 45 the youngest of the group. His 2 x 4.5-meter painting titled Pesta Surga juxtaposes humans, animals and plants in an enticing dreamscape, reminiscent of some of the paintings by the successful Filipino painter Rodel Tapaya. In Kerbau Jantan, a male buffalo is highlighted in simple lines amid a configuration of little creatures .

Ipong Purnama Sidhi, Sebelum Pesta Usai (2012), 200 x 145. (Courtesy of Expandableg)A similar enchanting element is found in the paintings by Lugiono, Klowor’s older brother, whose images of Hanoman, Dewa Ruci and Dewa Amral reflect the legendary stories usually performed in wayang shadow plays. Authentic and without any pretence, Lugiono’s paintings are in a class apart.

Ipong’s works are particularly interesting, as they show a steady development in his art. A one-time journalist and long-time staffer at Bentara Budaya Jakarta whose illustrations for Kompas are well known, a professional graphic designer and guest artist at Royal Stockholm University, Ipong has recently held various solo shows representing a free and liberated spirit.

His large, clown-like figures in vibrant colors are enlivened with undefined scratches. They are set against a black background with small written text or scratches, and accents made with extra thick paint at various points, like in Sebelum Pesta Usai.

Ipong’s paintings retain an endearing notion of the spontaneous, but underneath is always a serious contemplation of life.

In Urip Mung Mampir Ngombe Bir (Life Stops With a Glass of Beer) for instance, a fun figure in vibrant colors is in fact a reminder that life is short and we have to be aware of what comes thereafter.

The eclectic works by Irawan Karseno reveal a serious search in his artistic practice. His landscapes have beautiful color combinations, and his black-and-white abstract painting seeks a contemporary art form.

But it is the paintings titled Dialog Setengah Hari 1 and 2 that attract attention through their boldness.

Klowor, Pesta Surga (2011), 200 x 450. (Courtesy of Expandableg)
Against black backgrounds, Karseno’s designs appear simple, with just grey, green and a whiff of red on black. But they are in fact preceded by a long period of spatial contemplation.

Used to making many sketches a day, often filling his canvases, he reveals he had to keep his emotions under control this time and focus on the space. “I only needed half a day to put it on the canvas, but the contemplation before that took much longer.”

The paintings by Abdussalam seem to draw one in with their sheer pink colors that place an accent on floating figures. At first sight they look very familiar. The gestures and positions of the figures in the paintings seem to have had the strong influence of Henri Matisse’s The Dance, as well as the robotic figures in Miao Xiachun’s Last Judgment in Cyberspace.

But Abdussalam makes the work his own by adding elements and changing colors in his series called Trafficking, in which he draws the line on contemporary issues related to the trade in human beings and sexual slavery.

“Expandableg”
An exhibition by five painters
National Gallery Jakarta
April 5-19