15 Jul Art Taichung 2019
Continuing with our art fair programming for the year, Artemis Art heads to Art Taichung 2019 this month, our second time participating in this annual art fair, in its seventh edition this year. This time around, we will be featuring artworks by eight young and emerging artists from Indonesia and Malaysia: Ajim Juxta, Caryn Koh, Haris Rashid, Indra Dodi, Laksamana Ryo, M. Fadhlil Abdi, Syahbandi Samat, and Taufik Ermas. Collectively, the artworks demonstrate the sheer diversity in artistic styles and practices found in these two countries, a part the larger Southeast Asia region.
Art Taichung 2019 commences with a Preview day and Vernissage on Thursday, July 18 2019, after which it opens to the public the following day on July 19, continuing throughout the weekend until Sunday, July 21 2019. Artemis Art is one of the 64 galleries participating this year, distributed across floors 9 through 12 of the Millennium Hotel, Taichung. A floor plan of the art fair showing the location of participating galleries may be downloaded from this link (PDF format, opens in a new window).
This year, Artemis Art will be exhibiting in room 1109, joining two other galleries from Malaysia, Core Design Gallery and V’Art Space, both of whom are participating for the first time. Visit Art Taichung’s website to obtain more information on the art fair and participating galleries.
Millennium Hotel Taichung
Millennium Hotel Taichung (台中日月千禧酒店) is located at No. 77, Shizheng Road, Xitun District, Taichung City, Taiwan 40756 (link opens in Google Maps). The location map on the right provides an easy reference to find the hotel, in which four floors have been allocated for this year’s edition of Art Taichung.
Visit Millennium Hotel Taichung’s website for more information about the hotel.
Ajim Juxta
Caryn Koh
Haris Rashid
Indra Dodi
Laksamana Ryo
M. Fadhlil Abdi
Syahbandi Samat
Syahbandi Samat’s works were a late addition to the art fair, as a follow up to his introduction to Taiwan in Art Tainan 2019 earlier this year.
Taufik Ermas
Ajim Juxta
2019 is proving to be one of the artist’s busiest years, participating in several art fairs and group exhibitions, plus recently concluding his first international solo in Manila, Philippines. He is currently attending a year-long residency at Rimbun Dahan. His participation in Art Taichung this year sees a mixture of the artists paintings and drawings, part of the Arcology series of works he currently produces.
No stranger to Taiwan, Ajim Juxta was one of the three winners in the 2016 edition of the Young Art Award (bestowed in conjunction with the annual Young Art Taipei art fair), earning him a 3-month long residency at the Yeh Rong Jia Culture & Art Foundation in Hsinchu. This marks his fourth appearance in an art fair in Taiwan.
Caryn Koh
Best known for her Sekolah series, young artist Caryn Koh gave up a career in medicine (after qualifying to be a medical doctor) to pursue her passion in art. Currently residing in the UK, Artemis Art hosted Caryn’s debut solo exhibition last year, as well as proposing her as one of the participating artists in the inaugural Publika Art Show.
We will be featuring a mix of paintings and drawings from the doctor turned visual artist, delving into areas biological as well as psychological, a reflection of both the deep thoughts and memories within the artist, and her undying love for the sciences.
Haris Rashid
The natural fauna and flora abundantly found in Malaysia have become central to visual elements employed by young artist Haris Rashid. It is a reflection of the artist’s fascination for nature, as well as his deep affinity with it.
In the collection of works selected for Art Taichung this year, Haris utilizes visuals clearly inspired by Mother Earth’s bounty to highlight an important environmental concern – plastic pollution, a timely issue demonstrated by the appearance of plastic waste in the most unexpected of places the world over. So severe is the situation, both wildlife and vegetation – primarily sea based – are feeling the brunt of improper and reckless waste management by humankind, particularly in dealing with plastic waste, known to be something that will linger for a long time post-disposal.
Indra Dodi
The colorful naïve-style works of emerging Indonesian visual artist Indra Dodi have arrived to where they are today having gone through a gradual style metamorphosis over several years. He was well known early in his career as an abstract painter, and for his use of soft colors. Indra is, however, a storyteller by nature, distinct and recognizable form outlines already apparent in his early abstract artworks. His visual language has developed to include figurative elements and objects, distorted but distinct in their meaning and intent, skilfully composed to tell the many anecdotes, dreams, and stories the artist has to convey.
Indra Dodi’s works have captured the attention of art enthusiasts regionally, and the artist has frequently exhibited outside his home country of Indonesia in the past few years, around Asia and in Europe.
His colorful and visually fun artworks return to Taiwan, where he is no stranger, having participated in several art fairs with Artemis Art, as well as being one of the participants in de facto, a group exhibition of four emerging Indonesian artists, staged in Taipei back in 2017.
Laksamana Ryo
Originally from Banyuwangi in East Java, Laksamana Ryo is a recent graduate of the prestigious Institut Seni Indonesia in Yogyakarta. This young artist’s career, however, began much earlier while he was still a student, and in the past few years his artworks have been exhibited quite extensively within and beyond the borders of Indonesia.
At a glance, Ryo’s paintings are charmingly whimsical; pop surrealist artworks skillfully done in an illustrative style reminiscent of the world of anime. The classical visual veneer of his artworks, almost fairy tale like in appearance, broach subjects that are in contrast quite contemporary. Upon closer examination, however, the subjects this young artist’s works address are far from frivolous, for instance his critiques of traditional patriarchic behaviors that are quick to judge others, as well as the fluidity of how gender is viewed today, compared to the strictly imposed binary categorization given by more traditional worldviews.
M. Fadhlil Abdi
M. Fadhlil Abdi, the photorealist artist who makes a very strong impression wherever his art is exhibited, joins our line up of young and emerging artists for this year’s edition of Art Taichung.
In his recent works, Fadhlil’s focus is on the hyperreal paintings of children, which to the artist are symbolic of innocence and purity. He views children as having the potential of teaching us what it is to be pure again, purity being something that has gotten lost along the way as we grow into adulthood, tainted by the many experiences we have gone through in the process.
Although hyperrealism is not a skill that is by any measure unique among artists, Fadhlil is certainly the youngest we have come across in person, currently in his early 30s.
Syahbandi Samat
A late addition to our art fair lineup is Syahbandi Samat, whose ballpoint pen based works have earned him accolades in Malaysia, and much praise abroad where his works have been exhibited. The works selected to be exhibited in this art fair continues his introspective views of the artist’s own life, as father and husband, a provider and protector of his family.
Syahbandi is also very concerned about mankind’s treatment of the environment, reflected in two of his most recent artworks that we are exhibiting at this year’s Art Taichung.
Taufik Ermas
The dialectic of space is central to the body of work that Indonesian artist Taufik Ermas is best known for. The works selected for this art fair, however, feature a new technique of canvas manipulation that the artist has been experimenting with in the past year.
Using a combination of sewing and stuffing, Taufik uses this technique to express the idea of scarring, both physical and psychological, in human beings. Similar to the reasons of why the utilization of space was prominent in his earlier work, Taufik Ermas addresses another aspect of the severe trauma he experienced during the major Yogyakarta earthquake in 2006 – the psychological scars that the devastating event has left him to grapple with. This “scarring” has been developed to become a central feature in the artist’s newest works, opening up different channels of opportunities to explore and examine ideas.
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