A meeting of two generations in Art Stage Jakarta

The first international art exhibition hits Jakarta.

Art Stage Jakarta launches its first international premium exhibition on Friday, 5 August 2016. Hundreds of art pieces are shown in Sheraton Grand Gandaria City, from both local and international artists.

Art Stage is an annual event usually held in Singapore. But this year, Art Stage Founder Lorenzo Rudolf decides to spread his wings to Indonesia. “I have both rational and emotional reason for this,” he says at Art Stage Jakarta opening remarks.

He was introduced to Indonesia art world by Deddy Kusuma, and fell in love instantly. Indonesian art stakeholders, he says, are ‘unique and has strong collecting culture.’

Also, on 2007 when he attended an art fair at Shanghai, China, he found that many collectors showed deep interest to Indonesian installations and galleries. Then, 4 years later, he brought a group of foreign collectors to Indonesia.

“They were very eager,” he says.

Therefore, he suggested Deddy to create an art fair with international qualities. Indonesia, he continues, is the biggest art market in South East Asia; and probably second biggest in the continent after China.

At that time, his idea was rejected because no collectors and galleries agreed to participate. Lorenzo also cites the government at that time barely paid any attention in the art field.

But now, things have changed. Indonesia President Joko Widodo shows more interest in art and creative industry, where he formed The Creative Economy Agency (Bekraf). They also take part in Art Stage Jakarta.

Here comes the rational reason. Seeing Indonesian artists’ potential, Lorenzo wanted to do something.

“Indonesia needs international platform and infrastructure. We want to support,” he says. This way, local artists can show their pieces without having to go abroad, which will cost a lot. Newcomers will get a lot of benefit.

The arts

Art Stage Jakarta has two special exhibitions beside regular installation from galleries. This way, the event can fulfil the commercial and non-commercial targets.

“We can’t separate art from commercial means,” Lorenzo says. Artists still need to show their pieces for money. That explains the international galleries participation in this event.

But the special exhibitions are for noncommercial means. First, are the one called Expose.

Enin Supriyanto curated the pieces for Expose, which consists of 14 installations from different collectors. It varies from painting, statue, even digital ones.

“It’s a representation of the younger (collector) generation,” he explains. The art world itself has been through a lot of transformation. Younger and contemporary artists start to play more with mixed media. Digital ones -such as television, even computer screen -are not excluded.

While the other one, The Human Face, are 17 Affandi paintings specially curated by Lorenzo. “This collection shows Affandi’s empathy towards human; it’s his style,” he says.

The Human Face is supported by auction house the Sotheby’s and come from several prominent collectors’ belongings. Affandi didn’t use brush and palette for these paintings.

“He put colours directly from the tube, and paint using his fingers,” Lorenzo explains. He considers Affandi as Indonesia’s best expressionist.

The dark room where the paintings are displayed magically suits the sombre mood. It feels a little plain and (if I’m not mistaken) no details. But people are here for the paintings, so it doesn’t really matter.

New and old names

Other than special exhibitions, most pieces come from international galleries. There are several well-known names such as Takashi Murakami, Yayoi Kusama, and Zhang Xiaogang.

Several participating galleries already have big names. Big international names such as Gallery Perrotin Paris, Muzma Gallery Tokyo, and Pearl Lam Galleries Hong Kong are some mentioned. From Indonesia, there are Nadi Gallery, Galeri Canna, and Ruci Art Space.

This event is important for artists trying to make their names recognised internationally, since many foreign collectors are also visiting. For art students and artist in the making, all these pieces can provide new references.

But for public bypasser, it’s never wrong to simply treat your eyes with beautiful arts. They might soothe your restless and busy mind.