Paintings by Xante Gabriela
At Ganesha Gallery, Four Seasons Resort, Jimbaran Bay Tel: 701010
Xante Gabriela’s art is decidedly influenced by classical European painters, like Caravaggio and Rembrandt, who excelled in the use of chiaroscuro, shadow and light to create mystery and pathos. While her subject-matter is also like that of the old masters, revolving around gesture and body language, her artistic themes really belong more to the East, and its ancient spiritual traditions.
In her latest exhibition, ‘One Foot in Heaven, One Foot on Earth’, Xante presents a series of paintings using an experimental technique, mixing egg tempera and oil paints. She astonishes her audiences with a series of intimate images depicting a young Indonesian man and girl at prayer. As in the canvas ‘Man Praying I’, her subjects appear to float against dark moody backgrounds exuding an inner glow that suggests spirituality. We can sense tranquility and ‘surrender’, not as in defeat, but, as in the gracious acceptance of transitory worldly concerns.
In an age when many iconoclasts declare the old arts, such as literature, painting, sculpture and music redundant, if not irrelevant, Xante Gabriela stands out as proof of the awesome power of one image and one word to defeat those too lazy, or intolerant, to realize that some things are timeless. Xante shows that as long as humans contemplate their place in this Universe, there will always be a yearning and space for art in all its manifold forms.
Cigondewah
Paintings by Tisna Sanjaya
At Kendra Gallery, Jl. Drupadi 88B, Basangkasa, Seminyak. Tel: 736628
Born in January 1958, in Bandung, West Java, Tisna Sanjaya is an expressive artist, who is also a master of etching, drawing and painting. Controversial and passionate, Tisna hopes to utilize his artistic talents to expose social and political evils that are prevalent in Indonesia, and the rest of the world. Consequently, his exhibition ‘Cigondewah’, has been divided into two sections to highlight the distinctive aspects of his work.
The pieces ‘Cigondewah I to VI’ are assemblage works, made from wood, photographs, found-objects and paint. They are intended to convey an idea about a project Tisna has currently undertaken in Cigondewah, where he has constructed a building to be used as the ‘Cigondewah Cultural Centre’. Cigondewah is an industrial area which is part of the textile industry in the Bandung district; however, it is not prosperous. It looks more like a slum. Garbage is scattered all over the place, supplies of fresh water are hard to obtain, there is no place for children to play, and the air is so full of dust it makes you congested. Tisna plans for the ‘Cigondewah Cultural Centre’ to serve as a space for art activities that involve the surrounding community, including native residents and newcomers, business people and officials, as well as other artists. The activities he has designed for the centre will be tied to issues or debates which have reference for the entire Cigondewah district.
The rest of Tisna’s exhibition displays his raw neo-expressive paintings. The black and white canvases, such as ‘Kepala Kita Bulat Setiap Saat Berputar Dan Berubah’, appear related to drawing and etching, and it can be said that these works can be seen as superb examples of the art of drawing. ‘Heavy Duty’ paintings, created from thick asphalt on canvas, show Tisna Sanjaya’s political beliefs. A visual commentary on human existence and survival in the industrial, economic and social circumstances of the 21st century. ‘This Painting Kills Fascists’ is a fine example.
The Frames In Between
Paintings and Silk Artworks by Kirsty Ludbrook
At Biasa Art Space, Jl. Raya Seminyak No. 34, Seminyak Tel: 8475766
Kirsty Ludbrook was born in 1973 in Australia. She studied at the Julian Ashton Art School and Paddington Art School, after graduating with a Bachelor of Philosophy/Fine Arts Degree from Sydney University. In 2007 Ludbrook moved to Bali, where, from her studio in Canggu, she investigates ideas pursued through sketches and paintings. By experimenting with new materials and techniques she has found in Bali, such as the harmonious and graduated colors that can be achieved in silk batik, Ludbrook has been able to evolve her works. She reconstructs her sketches and paintings into murals, by employing local batik and embroidery techniques on silk. Her works for the exhibition, ‘The Frames In Between’, depict the ordinary phases between events, trying to identify them as life’s most significant moments.
In silk artworks, such as ‘One Second of Pure Clarity’, Kirsty Ludbrook’s painstaking technique is used to preserve the fleeting moments they depict. Intricately hand-stitched, the embroideries are appliquéd into graphic compositions that each describes a single, reflective instant. Paintings such as ‘I See, I Remember’, investigate different sensations of the moment, as Ludbrook manipulates paint to explore motion. Together, these series of ‘storyboard’ frames build a sense of repetitious motion around the exhibition space. Interested in the ways we obtain knowledge of ourselves, Ludbrook tries to explore the simple moments of reflection in which understanding comes to us. ‘The Frames in Between’, the undrawn frames in a storyboard, are those she believes the most significant in the pursuit of self-knowledge. The focus of this show is a solitary, young Balinese girl, and through each glimpse of her, always just out-of-frame or veiled in isolation by her hair, Ludbrook successfully pursues her studies on the modes of self-reflection.
