Element Art Space is pleased to present the second Singapore solo exhibition of Bandung Contemporary Art Award’s winner, Erianto, entitled ‘Play of Perception’.

Erianto’s latest body of work once again pushed the limits of painting in an exceptional manner, evoking a sense of urgency to rethink paintings as they used to be practiced. Using Photorealism, the artist created spatial illusion using optical tricks that disable our brains from understanding physical reality. Erianto suggests that realism is actually the ability to create dissociation between our perception and the reality itself, hence making realism to be an illusion of reality. Cardboard packages and wooden crates of various sizes on canvases create the optical illusion of real packages and crates on a flat plane, a feat that could signify the end of painting itself. As a collective, the exhibition portrays a studio of an artist after his or her unsold artworks are returned back to him or her from an exhibition at a gallery. Unopened crates lie on the floor, waiting for its next journey and owner.

‘Play of Perception’ does exactly that--playing with our perceptions though the details that the artist puts in his paintings. Backward facing letter ‘E’ that he uses in the word FRAGILE does not always catch our attention at first sight nor does the misspelled shipping labels, but they showed a narration of his journey as a struggling young artist from West Sumatra in the wild undeveloped infrastructure of Indonesian art scene. A play of mix and match of his name with a few big names that he has encountered in local and international art scene gives us a dash of humor. And the use of his native language in his works are reminders of his roots and casual wisdom that he wants to hold close.

About the Artist:

Erianto was born in West Sumatra in 1983 and is currently based in Yogyakarta. He studied at Institut Seni Indonesia (ISI), Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Exhibitions include ‘Returned’, Jakarta Indonesia 2011, ‘Resistance’, Art Stage Singapore (2012), ‘YOGYAKARTA: Five Artists from Indonesia,’ New York USA (2012), ‘FLOW: Contemporary Art from Indonesia,’ Berlin Germany (2012), ‘RE.claim,’ Galeri Nasional Indonesia (2012). He won the Bandung Contemporary Art Award in 2011.

Image: © Erianto, Element Art Space