Gajah Gallery proudly presents Navigating Entropy – a collaborative exhibition championing regional artists who have partnered with Yogya Art Lab (YAL), a subsidiary of the Gallery set in the beating heart of Indonesia’s burgeoning art scene, Yogyakarta.
Navigating Entropy gathers a diverse array of radical, invaluable works created by these artists whilst in residence at YAL – allowing works spanning a wide range of experimental mediums, from bronze to glass to clay, to converse in one space.
Founded in 2012, as a partnership between Gajah Gallery and Yogyakarta-based contemporary artist Yunizar, YAL is a stage for both prominent and emerging artists to experiment and produce works outside of their oeuvre – a ‘laboratory’ with all the tools to get dirty, innovate and create. Artists who had previously focused purely on paintings have been pushed and challenged to create bold, sculptural pieces that have since marked crucial expansions in their body of work.
YAL has thus nurtured that needed rare space for artists to boost their artistic potential and dive into radically new territories in the practice. Through working closely with experienced craftsmen beyond areas of their expertise, YAL marries novelty with experience to produce new works that pushes the boundaries of tradition.
The lab now produces works of the highest quality, with a vibrant foundry specialising in bronze works. The foundry has mastered the incredibly technical process of bronze casting, bringing to life the bronze sculptures of acclaimed regional artists such as Bali-based American artist Ashley Bickerton, and hometown hero, Yunizar.
Alongside this, the lab has collaborated with several renowned Singaporean artists, featuring large, tactile earthenware works by local ceramist Jason Lim, and new pigmented concrete works by Jane Lee which deconstruct and recontextualize iconic Old Masters. To be shown besides, are works by Australian-based, Singaporean multimedia artist Suzann Victor. Since 2016, Victor has entrusted YAL with assisting her on the execution of her crushed glass series of works, which have since become iconic to her artistic practice.
The foundry is thus fueled by a philosophy: embracing the uncertainty innate in trial- and-error, the organic transformations of materials and forms, and the chaos that informs some of the most fruitful creative processes. Behind the glamour, YAL turns the spotlight onto vital yet largely overlooked creative and technical aspects, inciting a sense of adventure in artistic production.
View the online exhibition here.
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