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Beauty, in the eye of the beholder
Season (Ghanyleo, 2018) 100 cm x 100 cm - Mixed media on canvasThe exhibition showcases the captivating powers of contemporary Indonesian visual arts, seeking to attract international visitors through different artists’ interpretation of beauty
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Season (Ghanyleo, 2018) 100 cm x 100 cm - Mixed media on canvas
The exhibition showcases the captivating powers of contemporary Indonesian visual arts, seeking to attract international visitors through different artists’ interpretation of beauty.
Words Sebastian Partogi Photos Arief Suhardiman
The Sunrise Art Gallery at the Fairmont Jakarta hotel in Senayan, Central Jakarta, in cooperation with Ollie Dhirendra Alexander, is presenting a painting exhibition called “IMAGINE… BEAUTY”.
The exhibition, presenting multidimensional and multiperspective views of beauty, is open for public viewing from Sept. 19 to Nov. 18 in the hotel’s gallery, mainly targeting the hotel’s international guests.
The exhibition was opened on Sept. 18 by Guruh Sukarnoputra, a famous choreographer and son of Indonesia’s former president Sukarno.
The exhibition features the work of 16 Indonesian painters: Agus “Baqul” Purnomo, Dadi Setiyadi, Luddy Astaghis, Yaksa Agus, Iqro’ Ahmad Ibrahim Laili Subkhi, Ghanyleo, Adha Widayansah, Andy Wahono, Arif Hanungtyas Sukardi, Elka Alva Chandra, Suryadi Suyamtina, Heri Purwanto, Astuti Kusumo, Wisnuaji Putu, Sudjadijono and Artha Pararta Dharma.
The artists represent different visual art styles, such as impressionist, abstract, surrealist and pop art. A lot of them also combine these compartmentalized styles in their paintings.
“We strive to highlight the works of Indonesian artists applying various perspectives in their artworks, to promote these paintings to international guests visiting the hotel,” Sunrise Art Gallery director Jessica Senjaya said.
In terms of content, some of the artworks being exhibited convey sociopolitical criticism, such as Luddy’s Negosiasi (Negotiation, 2018), which tackles the issue of corruption, collusion and nepotism.
Meanwhile, Yaksa’s Polisi Tidur (literally Sleeping Police, 2018), a twist on the Indonesian term for speed bump, features a policeman sleeping on the ground, a clear reference to criticism of Indonesian police officers’ performance. Andy’s Under the Flag (2016) laments human warfare and conflicts driven by nationalistic illusions.
Some of the paintings also depict beauty for beauty’s sake, like in Adha’s impressionist human portraits or Arif’s landscape paintings. So are Baqul’s paintings Fly to the Sunrise (2018) and Rembulan Emas #1 (Golden Moon #1, 2018), which bring to mind how the American abstract expressionist painting pioneer Jackson Pollock splashed different colors on his canvas to create a totality of beauty that is more than just a sum of these parts.
In his paintings, Baqul splashes bright and beautiful colors to collide with each other harmoniously, topped with figures of no less colorful and glittery Latin numbers on top. This mind-blowing blend of colors makes it hard for visitors to stop marveling at his paintings.
Dadi’s painting Seren Taun Party for Dewi Sri (2015), meanwhile, is a realist piece depicting the daily activities of a farming community.
“We conducted an open submission system for this exhibition; most of the paintings were submitted by winners of the [annual] UOB Painting of the Year awards [organized by the Indonesian branch of the Singaporean multinational bank UOB] in various years. Most of the painters come from Jakarta, Bandung in West Java and Yogyakarta,” Jessica, who is curating the exhibition, said.
The diversity of perspectives that the artworks showcase reflects the artists’ diverse inspiration sources.
For instance, although artists Astuti and Ghanyleo were both inspired by women’s beauty, they approached the subject differently. Being a female painter and working woman, Astuti said she was inspired by how women’s spirit was animated and brought to life by their occupations and activities, no matter what type of work they specialized in.
She captured the anima perfectly in her two paintings being exhibited: After Party and Let’s Talk about Beauty (both dated 2018), distinguished by the upbeat mood that both paintings exude.
Astuti said that Indonesian painters Affandi and Hendra Gunawan had been her greatest inspirations and their influences could be seen clearly in her paintings.
“I would like to take women’s creative spirit as a starting point from which I can inspire [the viewers of my paintings], be they male or female, to continue striving in whatever positive endeavors they are doing, to contribute something to solve our country’s problems and make it a better place,” Astuti, who won Indonesia’s Affandi Award as well as India’s Silver Medal of Shankar in the 1980s, told The Jakarta Post.
Ghanyleo, meanwhile, whose haunting, sepia-toned paintings Season and The Sealed Secrets in my Dream (both dated 2018) feature females on the lower right sides amid richly detailed backgrounds, said that for him female beauty was an abstract and indefinite experience that could best be described only through poetry.
Therefore, he said he accompanied these paintings with passages of poetry to describe the intangible emotions he went through in his creative process. The poetic accompaniment to these paintings can be accessed on the CiputraArtpreneur gallery’s Instagram account, @artpreneur (he is also the gallery’s art manager).
Painter Andy, meanwhile, wrote in his artist’s statement that beauty could also be found in tragic and poignant things, such as warfare: his painting Under the Flag depicts this perfectly. The painting depict horrid pictures of male combatants exuding scary and aggressive facial expressions, whose eyes have all turned white.
The men in the painting are apparently ready to be involved in warfare under a big flag, the flag representing the mythical sociopolitical identity constructs — race, religion, nationality — enough reasons for some people to massacre one another.
“I came here because I was invited; I typically go to exhibitions in art museums and galleries only,” said Sharon Kurniawan, a 24-year-old working woman and art enthusiast from South Jakarta, adding that she was typically skeptical of exhibitions held in shopping malls or hotels. “This one, apparently, does not disappoint”.
“The paintings feature beautiful colors; they also feature human portraits perfectly, albeit showing a strong pop art influence. My favorite painting is Ghanyleo’s The Sealed Secrets in my Dream,” she said, pointing to the painting. “Look at how that woman turns her head, her face blurred, with her mane of hair blown by the wind; that’s simply beautiful.”
