Naufal Abshar and his painting Merlion.

Local art connoisseurs, listen up: The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) is currently cooperating with PT Jakarta Land and ISA Art Advisory in organizing a public art exhibition featuring contemporary artists from Indonesia and Singapore from Sept. 12 to Oct. 12 in the lobby gallery of the World Trade Centre (WTC) 2 office tower on Jl. Sudirman, Jakarta.

Why Indonesia and Singapore? The exhibition has been dedicated to mark the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the neighboring countries.

Singaporean Ambassador to Indonesia Anil Kumar Nayar said in his opening remarks for the exhibition that the joint venture sought to boost people-to-people interaction between the two countries.

He added that good people-to-people relationships always made a difference in bilateral relations among nations, while laying an important foundation for other types of ventures, such as in business or governance.

The exhibition presents works of prominent senior artists as well as promising young ones that have just emerged in the arts scene. They include Chua Ek Kay, Kumari Nahappan and Robert Zhao from Singapore as well as Putu Sutawijaya, Kinez Riza, Irfan Hendrian, Naufal Abshar and Kendra Ahimsa from Indonesia.

STB Indonesia Area Director Raymond Lim added that the exhibition organizer had picked Indonesian artists who had strong connections with Singapore. Irfan, Naufal and Kendra, for example, have lived, worked and studied in Singapore before. All of them went to study at the country’s LASALLE College of the Arts.

ISA Art Advisory principal Deborah C. Iskandar, who curates the exhibition, added that each artist that had been chosen to join the exhibition was required to showcase strong and distinguishing characteristics in their works.

“If you looked at a painting and it reminded you of somebody else’s work, you would probably want to overlook the artist. Therefore, what makes a great artist is a strong identity, which all of the artists featured here possess. When you look at one painting here, you can tell right away that it is Kendra’s painting and not somebody else’s, for example,” Deborah briefed the press at the opening of the exhibition.

At the exhibition you can also observe how different styles interact and fuse seamlessly. This is evident in one centerpiece of the exhibition titled Chua Ek Kay, a collaborative piece created in 2006 by Putu Sutawijaya and Chua Ek Kay, both senior abstract painters.

The emerging young artists also make bold artistic statements: You can easily identify the artworks of Irfan Hendrian, who uses paper on woodboard as his main medium to produce rectangular shapes and minimalist colors. Meanwhile, Kinez Riza’s works distinguish themselves through the use of white to depict objects against a predominantly black background.

Kendra Ahimsa’s digital illustrations are notable for the detailed manner in which he draws numerous different objects featuring a wide range of colors. The works of Naufal Abshar — known as the “laughing painter” — could be clearly identified through the numerous images of people laughing, with the words HA-HA-HA strewn across their faces.

Naufal also painted Merlion, depicting the mythical half-lion, half-fish national icon of Singapore laughing.

“I draw my inspirations from day-to-day life, especially the act of laughing. We often associate laughing with something humorous when in fact the behavior contains loads of layers beyond that — when you laugh, you can laugh at things that aren’t funny, such as when you are laughing at yourself or other people,” Naufal said.

Irfan, meanwhile, said he drew inspiration for his artworks from the industrial processes in the publishing industry, using replicas of machines and other elements involved in it. He himself has worked in graphic design and in the printing industry.

“I am fascinated by how one material is interconnected with other materials in the publishing industry. For instance, I want to depict the process of turning paper pulp into books in my artworks,” he said, explaining his artworks that frequently used shredded layers of paper on board as the primary medium.

Likewise, professional engagement has also been a source of inspiration for Kendra. The artist, who has designed album covers for international psychedelic and electronic music bands, such as Kikagaku Moyo from Japan and Neon Indian from the United States, explained that 70 percent of his artworks had been inspired by the album artworks of psychedelic bands across the world. Psychedelic music happens to be his favorite genre.

“I am blending my own personal experiences with the aesthetics of these album covers,” Kendra said.

Anil said he would like to encourage more cross-cultural exhibitions like this in the future to foster mutual understanding between the two countries.