Famous Artists of the World Exhibition – National Gallery: Jakarta

Jakarta is without a doubt the city with the most museums and galleries in Indonesia. Its National Gallery is a great place to spend a few hours and at the moment they have a spectacular exhibition by the world renowned Luo Brothers.

Here’s the report by Carla Bianpoen in Jakarta:

Galleries here have hit us with discoveries of Chinese artists on a regular basis, but the exhibition now on show at the National Gallery is something else altogether.

Welcome Famous Brands of the World, the internationally acclaimed Luo brothers series, was brought to Jakarta by Vanessa Art Link.

In these images, Western brands like Coca Cola, KFC, Heineken and more, are appropriated and blended with smiley faces and plump children set against the golden rays of the sun.

Some people believe that aspects of individual cultures will be lost as the world is drenched in the consumerist monoculture of the West, others believe that increasing networks between cultures generate more difference, rather than sameness.

A good example is Chinese pop culture they say, where ideas are taken from the West — not to imitate — but to inspire their own creations.

As the Luo Brothers have gained local as well as international attention, their works have also stirred debate about the value of kitsch as art.

In the words of Li Xiangting, the renowned Chinese curator and art critic, the brothers’ forte lies particularly in lacquer painting. Lacquer paint, he says, has added much to the shine, flash and vulgarity of the brothers’ works.

Whether this is art or kitsch is no longer the issue.

The Luo brothers (Luo Weidong, 1963, Luo Weiguo, 1964 and Luo Weibing, 1972) were born in Nanning, in the southern province of Guangxi.

They graduated respectively from the Guangxi Academy of Art, the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Art and the Central Academy of Applied Arts, and since 1986 they have been living in Beijing, where they all work together.

The exhibition includes woodcut prints by Wang Nengtau, a multitalented artist who also sculpts, paints and takes photos. In the series, which he names The Bustling Age, he uses simple lines to shape the large portraits representing the “bustling age” in his country.

Often using between three and 16 panels for one work, the prints are large. One wall in the National Gallery is covered with 16 panels that form his colossal oeuvre titled The People.

Wang was born in Heilongjiang in 1962. He is a graduate of the Art Department Central Ethnical Academy of China (1988), and has exhibited widely.

Luo Brothers and Wang Nengtao at:

The National Gallery Jakarta,
Jl. Merdeka Timur 14, Jakarta

Jan. 24- 31

And at: Vanessa Art Link,
Graha MIK, Main Lobby, Jl. Setiabudi Sel. Kav.

16-17 Feb. 1 – 24

Contact Vanessa Art Link: 62 21 594 1411

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