We’ve recently returned from a quick trip to Yogya and Beverly had her first experience of attending a typical Yogyakarta art exhibition opening (with lewd comedy skits and artists singing and dancing). The said exhibition was “Rai Gedheg” (meaning “Shameless” in Java) at Bentara Budaya (23 June – 3 July) and will tour to Jakarta, Malang and Surabaya. Again, the artwork that I like “Lelah” by Agapetus Kristiandana has something to do with my collection of pigs… ☺. I was very amazed with the detailing – right down to the cardboard paper that the artist used to display the sculpture.

A typical art exhibition opening party in Yogyakarta

“Lelah” by Agapetus Kristiandana

“Seperti Chaplin” by Hedi Hariyanto

We heard that Bob Sick and S Teddy D were having an opening on the 24th but we were already leaving so we decided to preview the exhibition at Taman Budaya when we popped over to Malioboro the next morning. It is a pretty amazing showcase – Bob Sick made new paintings, S Teddy showed some of his old objects with new sculptures. I especially liked General, “Platoon, better you die? Ok!”.

General, “Platoon, better you die! OK?” by S Teddy D

“Show me the way to the next bridge” by S Teddy D

“The Farmer’s name is Hulk” by Bob Sick

“Black Gold” by Bob Sick

L-R: “Lady Coffee”, “White Lotus”, “Black Buddha”, “Meja Hijau” by Bob Sick

As promised, here’s the second installment of Eko Nugroho’s work in 3-d. This stunning bronze pair was a part of “It’s all about Coalition”, a project commissioned by the National Museum of Singapore earlier this April. Photo of the bronzes courtesy of National Museum of Singapore.

The two other images below are from “The Golden Years”, an installation consisting of over-sized golden skulls, embroidered flags and mural from the Sea Art Festival at Busan Biennale this year. This work is an absurd take on the turbulent years of Indonesia’s history. Eko is pictured in both photos as the shots were taken during set up.

One of RogueArt’s favourite artists and persons in the world, Eko Nugroho opened his latest solo exhibition at Galeri Semarang on November 8th. Woohoo! While we are sorry we couldn’t be there to cheer him on, we do however have images from the exhibition to share with everyone.

We want to adopt the green hippo.

A versatile artist who works across numerous disciplines and media, Eko began experimenting with 3-dimensional life-sized forms in 2007. Cast in polyurethane resin or bronze, the artist’s stable of part-man part-machine creatures and objects made their first public appearance at his solo exhibition with Ark Galerie in Jakarta in March 2008. They have also graced the Glass Atrium of the National of Museum of Singapore for a special project commission in April 2008 as well as the recent Sea Arts Festival at Busan Biennale 2008 in September. We’ll post more Eko pictures next week. Promise.

Trivia: The title of this exhibition is based on one of his large scale embroideries from 2007 at VWFA’s Project Room show, “In Wonderland”. Here’s an image of the embroidery during the set up.

We thought we’d post this painting by Yogyakarta-based artist, Bambang “Toko” Wijacksono for some old-fashioned fun. The simplicity of its design and style evoke pleasant childhood memories of Mad magazine, Where’s Waldo and good old Ladybird storybook illustrations. And the piggies are just so adorable that we might be tempted to huff and puff and blow their house down! Hee!

Trivia: “Toko” in Bahasa Indonesia means “a shop” or “a store”. One of Bambang’s solo projects during the earlier part of 2000 focused on the notion of bartering. He transformed Cemeti Art House into a ‘market’ where members of the public were invited to trade their wares with him. Incidentally, Bambang is the go-to person in Yogyakarta if you ever need to find or buy anything. Seriously. Guaranteed never to disappoint!