Ubud, Bali: best contemporary art galleries
There’s More to Bali Than Beers, Buddhas and Beaches.
One of the many lovely things about visiting Ubud is the incredibly vivid and prolific arts community. Ubud has more galleries and art workshops per square kilometer than just about anywhere I’ve ever been. The stylistic palette spans antiquities and traditional folk right through to postmodern abstract and installation works. If you like art, there’s something in Ubud for everyone.
The vast majority of the art dealers in Ubud are selling tourist-targeted stuff that is pretty and affordable but rarely challenging or innovative. There are exceptions to that general rule, though. I spent a week searching for the most interesting galleries in Ubud, and I found some amazing places that rise above the ordinary.
Wayan, the friendly curator of Komaneka Gallery, shows me around and talks about the gallery’s mission;
“Komaneka is trying to promote younger artists now,” he tells me. “The gallery has been operating for more than ten years and we work with well-established artists as well, but we want to show the work of artists that are leaving the traditional ‘Bali’ style and doing something more modern. The show hanging right now is by one of our artists Sujenah Nengah who was born and raised in Bali, but he has moved away from the traditional art style because he wanted to do something more abstract. Now he is quite famous and also has exhibitions in Japan.”
Alongside the modern style paintings on the walls, there is a collection of intricate wood carvings that seem to have a traditional style. Wayan urges me to look more closely at the sculptures.
“You see, if you study this work, that the carving is in a traditional style, but all the little figures are doing modern things. They are riding motorbikes and things like that. The artist who made these ones, Taman Ketut, he took more than 2 years to carve this piece. You can see at the top the figures look more tranquil, and peaceful, but at the bottom of the pile they are crushed together and have very angry looking faces.”
Cata Odata is a manifestation of youthful exuberance and creative innovation. The founder, Ratna Odata describes her project as a “workshop-slash-living-space-slash-gallery,” and the place certainly does have a very intimate and energised feeling about it. As well as showing exhibitions, Cata Odata also hosts creative workshops and organises collaborative residency projects with artists.
“We like to have skill sharing forums here, as well as shows,” Ratna explained to me. “This art space is a place for artists to meet and learn from each other as well.”
The main exhibition rooms are full of works by Imam Sucahyo, a self-taught artist from East Java, on the Indonesian mainland.
Ratna told me that Cata Odata has a mission to nurture “outsider” artists; people whose work is in opposition to the traditional folk style which is so popular in Bali.
“Imam’s work is very interesting to me because he combines some traditional motifs and techniques with very avante garde themes and ideas. A lot of his work is quite political I think and although he probably wouldn’t say so, I see him as a deep thinker.”
Downstairs, below the main gallery area, is an open-air workshop, next to a small creek. Dragonflies buzz around the creek and between the piles of half finished paintings stacked against the walls.
“It’s a bit of a mess down here because we’re getting ready for the exhibition opening on Monday,” Ratna explains. “This is a living art space, as you can see. We are not a museum. This is a place for making as well as showing. We don’t have a formal barrier between the public spaces and the workshop area. Anyone can wander in off the street and see the making area as well as the collection.”
Walking into the Tony Raka gallery is an uplifting experience right from the moment you step off the footpath and into the cafe forecourt. The gallery is situated in a massive, leafy tropical garden, full of statues and embellished with carved stone water features. It feels like a trendy hipster hangout in the middle of a manicured jungle.
The eponymous owner of the Gallery, Tony Raka, is an architect as well as an art dealer, and he designed the picturesque garden and playful modern interior of the place himself.
Tony’s son, Wayan met me in the cafe when I arrived, and walked with me around the massive gallery.
“There are actually three galleries here,” Wayan informed me. “My father designed this place so that we could show different styles of work in different areas. For instance, in the back part of the garden there is a hall for antiques and traditional carvings. then there is a gallery just for foreign artists who we represent, and here at the front is the current exhibition which is mostly contemporary Indonesian artists.”
The scale of the work in Tony Raka gallery is in keeping with the dimensions of the gallery. Some of the canvases are several metres on a side and take up the whole wall from floor to ceiling. There is a range of styles on show from modern abstract to graphical figurative art that is like graffiti, a mix of spray paint and stencils.
It takes us more than an hour to see the whole collection, so when we finally arrive back in the foyer cafe, I gratefully sink into a comfortable chair and slurp a large, excellent coffee.
“This is like culture-vulture heaven,” I say to Wayan. “Art, coffee, beautiful garden…”
Wayan laughs; “yes, many people come back every week just to hang out here and enjoy a coffee. It’s not easy to find really good espresso here in Bali.”
Article first published on MyLike.
