Edouard Malingue Gallery is pleased to present a group show at ROH Projects, Jakarta. On display will be a selection of Edouard Malingue Gallery’s programme, which emphasises through extensive projects throughout Asia dialogue between Asian and international artists working across multiple mediums. Presented will be works by Laurent Grasso (France, 1972), Nuri Kuzucan (Turkey, 1971), Fabien Mérelle (France, 1981), Yuan Yuan (China 1973) and Wang Zhibo (China, 1981). The group show is part of an ongoing collaboration with ROH Projects established in 2012 to develop greater dialogue with artists in Indonesia and the wider Asian Pacific region. The show will be followed by a reciprocal exhibition of ROH Projects artists at Edouard Malingue Gallery Hong Kong in September 2017. 

Laurent Grasso is a conceptual artist working across multiple mediums who transports you into a realm of impossibility and actuality, knowledge and belief. Blurring our concepts of past, present and future, the ‘Studies into the Past’ works combine medieval painting techniques with scenarios from seemingly the same period that introduce an element of impossibility or scientific incomprehension. Emphasising the duality between past and present is the bas-relief marble sculpture ‘Psychokinesis’, which depicts a hovering rock, a scene that relates back to his film carrying the same title. Moving between different dimensions, the gold leaf sculpture ‘Anechoic Wall’ (2016) at once references Grasso’s sensory engagement as well as his appreciation of the sublime. Grasso has been widely exhibited including the MASS MoCa, North Adams (2017); Pompidou-Metz, Metz (2016); Fondation Etrillard, Paris (2016); Jeu de Paume, Paris (2012). In 2016 Grasso unveiled ‘Solar Wind’, a major public permanent installation in the 13^th District, Paris。

Nuri Kuzucan is a foremost Turkish painter who creates canvases that relate to the urban metropolis. Focusing on the global lexicon of cosmopolitan landscapes, Kuzucan explores through multiple layers of paint the characteristics major cities carry, fleshing out their idiosyncrasies as well as homogenisation. On display are ‘Base Source’ (2016) and ‘The Facade’ (2015), which depict two distinct approaches to urban life. The former in its clear, translucent tones appears optimistic, the precise blocks of clean white peering through a clear sky. Conversely, ‘The Facade’ (2015) provides the same blue but becomes a more brooding reflection, embracing the systematic chaos of modern city living. In addition to participating in numerous international group and solo shows, Kuzucan’s work has been exhibited in public collections such as the Pera Museum, Istanbul and is part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art, Istanbul.

Fabien Mérelle creates intricate black ink and watercolour drawings of personal micro narratives often taking the form of self-portraits. Being exhibited are three recent works, ‘Homme Volant’ (2016) appears as a character study, a man dons a beaked mask and crude cardboard ‘wings’ in what one can only imagine will be a futile attempt at flight. ‘Etreint par les mots, les livres, la littérature pour traverser la nuit’ (2016) and ‘Toujours plus haut’ (2016) depict solitary figures, the first of which is a self-portrait in profile with reading material hanging from his neck by strings. ‘Toujours plus haut’, in comparison uses a lot more negative space, portraying an impossibly miniscule Mérelle clinging to a twig and squinting into the empty space above. Mérelle has been exhibited at The Drawing Centre, New York (2015); UQ Art Museum, Brisbane (2014); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2013); Musée de La Rochelle, France (2013), amongst other locations. Mérelle’s work can be found in several private and public collections, including the Centre Pompidou, Paris and the Daniel and Florence Guerlain Foundation, Paris.

Yuan Yuan is an established Chinese painter who approaches the canvas as an exploration of humanity and the passing of time focusing mainly on interiors. Yuan Yuan’s compositions are highly structured and orderly, yet with an element of mystique managed by the geometric details of the architecture depicted. Yuan manages with incredible detail to describe every individual surface within the composition in particular, mosaics and patterns of tiles as observed in ‘Confessionary’ (2011). Yuan’s work has been exhibited in Paris, Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai, Yokohama, Taiwan and is held in numerous private collections, including the White Rabbit Collection, Sydney and Pomeranz Collection, Vienna.

Wang Zhibo is a highly regarded female Chinese painter who creates oil on canvas paintings that transcend traditionalism through the subject matter depicted, which is both curious and challenging. In ‘Hocus Pocus’ (2015) Zhibo agitates a classic subject of a fruit still life by means of placement and scale, hiding bodily forms amongst their shapes. Taking the arrangements further into anthropomorphism, ‘Swaddling’ (2016) features three bodily pears under a table decorated with disguised heads on the cloth above. Wang’s work has been exhibited from Hong Kong to New York, including exhibitions at the Chongqing Art Museum, Chongqing (2015); Penrith Regional Gallery, Sydney (2014); Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei (2013); Today Art Museum, Beijing (2008). 

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ROH Projects was founded in 2012 with a vision to establish a leading gallery for the development of contemporary art in Indonesia and the greater Asia Pacific region. It focuses on providing a platform for emerging artists with alternative practices as well as showing more developed artists in a nuanced and intellectually sound manner. ROH also presents its artists in an international scale and has shown with the most prestigious art fairs in Asia.

Edouard Malingue Gallery was founded in Hong Kong in 2010 to build a critical dialogue between Asian and international contemporary artists, both emerging and established, who combine aesthetic concern with conceptual enquiry, and work across different disciplines from video and installation to painting and sound. In 2016 the gallery opened a second space in Shanghai, creating a wider platform of exchange for its roster of artists. In addition to presenting dynamic solo exhibitions, the gallery pushes the boundaries of art in public spaces and stimulates artistic discourse through collaborations with curators worldwide.