Valentine Willie Fine Art Singapore is delighted to present INDONESIA AND I, Indonesian artist Muhamed “UCUP” Yusuf\'s first overseas solo exhibition and only his second solo exhibition to date. INDONESIA AND I showcases a suite of nearly 20 large-format woodblock prints from one of the region\'s key artist-activist. The present exhibition follows through Yusuf\'s critically-received 2005 debut at Galeri Lontar, Jakarta, where he exhibited 20 paintings which comprised a visual interpretation of Indonesian poet and writer Pramoedya Ananta Toer\'s novel Arok Dedes published in 1999.
A founding member of the Indonesian artist-activist collective Taring Padi since 1998 when the group emerged in a period of domestic political turmoil, Yusuf\'s works centre around Indonesian society and politics. Concern for social justice and the rights of minority and marginal communities, Yusuf and other members of Taring Padi have consistently cultivated a grassroots-centred social consciousness in their works. Their distinct brand of protest art seeks as much to draw awareness to the livelihood of particular social communities as they highlight, mock and criticise structures of inequality. Due to ease of production and distribution, block printing on paper and cloth has remained a mainstay technique deployed by the members of Taring Padi.
In the works exhibited in INDONESIA AND I, Yusuf extends the group\'s brand of visual aesthetics. Each of the exhibited block print on cloth is intricately composed, visually powerful and carries extensive narrative depth. Articulating the rights of every child to education; the virtues of personal character development; equality for women; sufficiency on the agricultural produce of local communities; and visions of social democracy, Yusuf sounds a distinct and powerful voice of advocacy in today\'s Indonesian contemporary art scene.
Popok Tri Wahyudi’s works in his first Malaysian solo exhibition are stories about commuting, travelling, human mobility and migration. Presented in a wide range of media, from paintings and drawings to woodblock prints, silkscreen on canvas and mini sculptures, these bittersweet and sometimes macabre narratives negate the glamorous images of the jet set that one may associate with travel ¬–when people wined and dined and slept on bunk beds and were charmed by the allure of flight stewardess. Instead, his work narrates the grittier realities of travelling ‘cattle class’, locally and internationally, in the 21st Century, particularly in the context of Southeast Asia.
Popok’s vivid colours, simple forms and comic style compositions are powerful storytelling devices that can be easily accessed by his audience. Popok’s comic inspired work is very much rooted in the everyday. They address the socio-political issues of Indonesia’s charged environment through social satires and an inimitable brand of ‘Jogja comic style’, characterised by thick black outlines and bright bursts of colours, stylised depictions of human figures against part dystopian part science-fiction settings.
Exhibition runs from 15 - 30 July 2010 at
The Annexe Gallery
2nd Floor, Central Market Annexe, Kuala Lumpur
T: 03 2070 1137
Opening hours: Mon - Sun: 11am – 8pm
www.annexegallery.com
The need to be creative heralds the formation of a cellular community, energy moving energy about. It motivates and gathers inspiration, and the end result is an exterior reflection of interior goings-on, albeit abstracted or full of symbolism. Sometimes we forget that art is about energy; personal energy which differs with every individual who tries their hand at being an artist.
Harnessing the spectacular energy of some of Malaysia’s most interesting contemporary artists, Valentine Willie Fine Art (VWFA) presents The Energy Trap: Painting & Sculpture, a fun and dynamic off-site exhibition at The Annexe Gallery. Featuring works by sculptors and painters, including two prominent graffiti artists, The Energy Trap will showcase a wide range of artistic approaches in one exhibition, putting on a show unlike any seen to date in KL. The exhibition will cater to a diverse crowd of visitors eager to enjoy the energy of today’s art scene, view possibilities in painting and sculpture, and consider where Malaysian contemporary art may be headed for the future.
The artists exhibiting in The Energy Trap were collected together to represent the increasingly assured yet fresh output of current contemporary Malaysian art. Professional and residential proximities and cultural backgrounds unify these artists, but can also serve to highlight their differences and bring to light their unique personalities. Rather than grouping these artists into a singular unit for show, The Energy Trap aims to apply a basic curatorial lens to examine each individual artist in the general context of creative industry, and exhibit them together as a limited cross-section of the local scene. The Energy Trap will give visitors a fun opportunity to focus on participating artists, individual works, or the exhibition as a whole, with emphasis on the notion of art as energy. Visitors will also enjoy the chance to informally contemplate ideas of ‘Contemporary Malaysia’ whilst assessing their own energy and the potential global impact of their personal levels of involvement in local arts and culture.
The Energy Trap comes about from a commitment by Valentine Willie Fine Art, Kuala Lumpur, to focus more intently on supporting Malaysian artists. Through The Energy Trap and other exhibitions, VWFA provides a platform for young artists working in a somewhat hostile market, and reminds us of their relevance, playfulness, distinct messages and need for support.
The Energy Trap: Painting & Sculpture opens on 8 April 2010, at 8pm, for anyone in Malaysia with energy.
Featuring works by:
Abdul Latiff Ahmad Padzali, Azam Aris, Bibichun, Cheong Tuck Wai, Fabian Tan, Gan Chin Lee, Hee Chee Way, Lim Keh Soon, Lisa Foo, Low Eng Seng, Mohd Safwan Ahmad, Saiful Razman, Samsuddin Wahab, Syafiq Ali’am, Tan Chee Hon and They.
Exhibition runs from 8 – 23 April 2010 at
The Annexe Gallery
2nd Floor, Central Market Annexe, Kuala Lumpur
T: 03 2070 1137
Opening hours: Sun – Thurs: 11am – 8pm; Fri & Sat: 11am – 9.30pm
www.annexegallery.com
In 2004, the exhibition\'s curator, Alan Oei, then an art history undergraduate, felt exactly that way coming face to face with the much talked about "Madonna and Child" by Duccio. Recently purchased by the Metropolitan Museum at an astounding USD 45 million, it had been also been accused of being a poor forgery. But what drew Oei\'s attention was the strangeness of the infant Jesus in Madonna\'s arms.
Oei says, "Babies are cute, but this multi-million dollar baby looked so scary!"
Six years later, this forms the premise of the upcoming exhibition presented by Oei in partnership with Valentine Willie Fine Art gallery – that children were invented in the 19th century. Or at least the modern idea that children are innocent, exuberant and full of curiosity, needing adult supervision of both love and discipline.
Oei uses the seminal essay, "Centuries of Childhood" by Philip Ariès to challenge the contemporary concept of childhood as historical and contingent. Ariès suggests that pre-modern European culture thought of children as incompletely formed, whose lives, work and needs were similar to adults. For instance, knowledge of sexual relations were considered normal, and children also attended the spectacle of public executions. Thus artists, in approaching children as (incomplete) adults, did not feel a need to represent children with different physiognomies. Instead, they applied painting conventions and techniques – based on adults – to represent the infant Jesus, with the result that children looked scarily more like mini-adults with mature faces and adult proportions.
For Oei, how we describe and depict children tell us more about the authors and artists than it does about the actual subjects. With a selection of 10 artists like :phunk, Huang Wei and Zhao Renhui, the exhibition turns to the 21st century visual representation of children as subjects as well as cultural ideas of innocence, play, wonder and nostalgia that we project onto childhood.
For instance, Andre Tan\'s work is a carry-over from his childhood. Growing up, Tan had never been able to tell why Batman or Captain American was any different or less important than someone like Mao Zedong - now his canvases intermix the real and fictional together, somehow succeeding in being ironic and sincere at the same time.
Zhao Renhui, who is exhibiting a photograph of a girl emerging from the forest, says, "My childhood is about belief, believing in icons like Jesus, water and wine. I have a feeling my work is about wanting to believe in that faith because all the spectacle around belief today seems to be a huge joke. I miss that childhood."
Curator quote: "There is a list of adjectives - sincere, precocious, lively, innocent - we always ascribe to children. These form our image, yet look at any child today. Isn\'t it more likely their parents will impose the exact opposite - torrid, rigorous schedules from tuition to ballet to speech and drama? There is clearly some kind of dualism in how we approach children, and that deserves a closer look. The artists exhibited here expand and redefine our conceptions of childhood."
"On that note, I think it really sucks to be a kid in Singapore these days…"
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