Soemardja Gallery ITB Showed Haris PurnomoÂ’s Pieces of Art Off

By Mega Liani Putri

Editor Mega Liani Putri

Bandung, itb.ac.id - Again, Soemardja Gallery ITB held an art exhibition done by a famous Indonesia artist. This time, the pieces of art were born from the hand of Haris Purnomo who created art with the content of social and political issues. He did not make the figures of tattooed guys like he did the other day, but he who have spread his wings to New York, Prague, Zurich, also Milan created adult faces on the 160 cm x 200 cm canvas. The exhibition was titled "The Scar of Metaphor, Realism, and Photography" and held on Thursday (27/11/14) through Saturday (13/12/14).

"My pieces this time are all faces. The visual theme, I let you to interpret by yourself," Haris said on Monday (01/12/14). Out of the faces, Haris wanted to express his suspense about Indonesia today through his paintings. On the canvas, Haris illustrated the scar of the people which are the excluded goodness, social problem, and human rights crisis. In his opinia, the issues demand attention and have to be solved.

Ir. Soekarno, Jend. Police Hoegeng Imam Santoso, Oemar Bakrie, and Papua people were some of the faces Haris painted. He put a unique tattoo on one part of the faces. The tattoo was dragon and had a special meaning. He said that the dragon was the symbol of power which often drown the virtue "The faces illustrated the idealism and the excluded goodness. In Indonesia, these kinds of people are importand yet forgotten," Haris said.

One of the paintings that attracted attentions was the one titled "Kartini". An old lady was painted by Haris and he related her to today Kartini. Kartini painting was bright and colorful. The old lady got rainbow-colored hair to show the difference about the two figures, Kartini and woman nowadays.

In his paintings, Haris did it by relatively new techniques which are the combination of fascinated technology and painting techniques. The techniques were to make it easier even though at the end the artist's skill is a must. "I finished the pieces using the technique which is the combination of photography, Photoshop software, pictures, and painting it. The development of technology did push me to finish my artworks," Haris said.

To publish the techniques, Haris did a workshop for the art students about painting and photos on canvas. The workshop was held on Mondai - Tuesday (01-02/12/14) in Painting Studion, FSRD IT. Besides, there will be a discussion wih Haris Purnomo, Jim Supangkat (Indonesian artist and comic), and Hendro Wiyanto (Indonesia artist and curator).