Katrin Figge

Some of the works on display as part of the Point to Point show. (Photo: Katrin Figge, JG)

New Show a Road Map of Artistic Talent

While the contemporary art scene in Indonesia is thriving, some main cities are lagging behind in producing talented artists. To promote the work of up-and-coming artists across the country, Elcanna Gallery in Kebayoran Baru is presenting “Point to Point,” an exhibition featuring the work of 16 young artists from Bali, Solo, Semarang and Bandung.

“Simply stated, this exhibition represents a road map of the development of young artists in Indonesia,” said Grace Carla Suherman, the owner of Elcanna Gallery.

“In the past three years, we have seen the growth curve of Indonesian contemporary art, but not all regions of Indonesia actually rode that wave. This is particularly true for the cities of Solo and Semarang, where artists are practically absent from the realm of fine art.”

The exhibition features the work of four artists from Semarang and three from Solo.

“The artists are all still young, the youngest is Tri Wahyudi from Solo, who was born in 1986,” said Ida, a staff member at the gallery. “But despite their age, many of them have already participated in group exhibitions, some have even had solo exhibitions.”

The paintings are displayed on the walls of the two-story gallery in South Jakarta. Comfortable leather sofas and wooden benches invite the guests to sit down and reflect.

“The theme of the exhibition, Point to Point, means that the artists are depicting episodes of their daily lives, maybe a certain incident, a mere observation or a personal experience,” Ida said.

Daily life means something unique to each of the artists. Balinese painter Cundrawan presents daily life in Denpasar, where tradition and modernity exist side by side.

Cundrawan belongs to the “older artists” of this exhibition. He was born in October 1972, graduated from the School of Fine Art and Design at Udayana University in 1998 and has already taken part in several group exhibitions, mostly in Bali, although Point to Point is his first exhibition in the Indonesian capital.

Another artist from Bail, I Gede Arta, focuses on rural life: his two paintings feature the same elderly Balinese man, who in the first one is crouching, apparently daydreaming, while in the second painting, he is seen walking away, but turning around with a suspicious look on his face, as if somebody has unexpectedly called out his name. Gede shows a loving eye for detail: the thick veins on the man’s hands and legs, his wrinkled face and even the dirt under his toenails.

A very personal approach to the daily life theme comes from Mochammad Salafi Handoyo, or Ridho, a 26-year-old artist from Semarang. The colorful pieces he contributed for the exhibition revolve around children and fatherhood, depicting toys, pets, a bicycle and dolls in a playhouse.

“When he learned that his wife was pregnant, he came up with these three paintings,” Ida said. “In the first one, he is still thinking about the child as a baby, for example what kinds of toys he would need to buy. In the second and third paintings, he is already thinking about the child’s future, about school and education, and eventually about the kind of life his child will have when it has already grown up.”

Other artists like Bandung-based Kiki Rizky Soetisna Putri, who is one of the two female artists in the exhibition, touch on subjects that are very much a part of most people’s daily lives: electricity cables and poles — items that are seen in the daily lives of many people in the country’s cities.

Point to Point

Until Tuesday
Elcanna Gallery
Jl. Pakubuwono VI No. 35
Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta
Tel. 021 721 1121

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