Komaneka is a new generation art gallery in Ubud

By Astri Wright

UBUD, Bali (JP): Koman Wahyu Suteja walked out of his office, gray T-shirt over white Levi's-style pants, lists of artist biographies and paintings in hand. He ascended the broad stairs to the special exhibition on the second floor.

He greeted collectors from Jakarta and Singapore with a relaxed smile. The price list was handed over. The ample light from large windows on the east and west walls combined with well- directed spotlights to illuminate works of three young Indonesian artists featured here for the first time in a major way.

As the day passed, red dots appeared next to paintings, marking them for private collections in Jakarta, Singapore, Malaysia, Lebanon and Canada.

Visitors sauntered through the gallery, the cool gray-ocher marble floor, mostly polished, some parts rough, breathing in the fresh scent of high-stalked tuberoses in tall vases on pedestals. Sheer silk and chiffon batiks from Pekalongan, Central Java, lay unfurled as Mansri Trisniawati, Koman's wife, selected the finest to accompany art books and a few exquisite carvings of her own design on the gallery table. Trained as an architect, the mother of one played an active part in the gallery business.

The gallery, formally opened last December with a special exhibition by I Made Djirna, is the most recent major addition to the region of Indonesia that boasts the highest density of high- quality galleries and museums in combination. Only Jakarta has more galleries, but even the capital loses out when it comes to easily accessible public displays of collections of traditional and modern Indonesian and Balinese painting.

Modernization of Bali, in the wake of rocketing tourism, has caused a veritable secularization and further development of sacred architecture. This has occurred as temple-like settings for art (and dining) have increased in the last two decades.

Several years ago, Koman was working on an economics and business degree. How did he end up in the gallery business?

"Well, at first, I wanted to be an architect but my family wanted me to go into business, and I thought business was not so bad either, so I did," he said. "I worked with a friend in Bali who was exporting prefabricated houses. Later I became assistant managing director and later general manager for a joint venture company in Bandung, West Java, making skijackets for the North American and Japanese markets.

But I was never completely satisfied. During my two years in Bandung, I went back to Bali every week or two. When my family situation changed and my brother was no longer in Bali to look after my parents, I decided to go back."

Return

In a position that would be any 26-year-old business major's dream-come-true, Koman had the courage to quit and return home to rejoin his family, and embrace the world of art, the family preoccupation he had imbibed since birth.

Koman is the son of Sutedja Neka, who with his wife built the first large commercial art gallery in Bali and pioneered the amassing of permanent collections in large, extravagant "neo- Bali" museum buildings.

Neka early on diversified his business to support the non- profit but high-cost venture of museums in a country where there is no government support for such institutions. Today, a commercial gallery aids in supporting the Neka Museum.

"After looking around at all the businesses in Bali, I wanted to have my own gallery," Koman said. "At first my family was against it ...they said there was too much competition. But my father had land available in a good location. Once we decided that I would develop another, complementary business, in case the gallery didn't work out, they supported the idea."

With an older brother and sister who are doctors, and a younger sister who owns a supermarket in Ubud, Koman has always been an obedient son who has avoided going against parental will.

The gallery is situated on Monkey Forest Road, now almost completely developed except for a couple of lots and the soccer field. Koman designed the building, which, with its elegant simplicity in white stucco, dark wood and a series of vertical glass windows, is the first example in Ubud of contemporary Indonesian architecture.

This in an architectural design approach that transcends regional tradition but combines various Indonesian materials and designs into a new whole, often characterized by great simplicity.

At Koman's gallery, the post and beam ceiling, the basic structure of Javanese and Balinese houses, is made of bingkirai wood from Kalimantan. The ceiling is gedek (plaited bamboo), the exterior and interior walls are plain white stucco and the floors are made of marble from Citatah in West Java.

"I love architecture!" Koman exclaims. "My wife is an architect and we discussed the designs. I also have lots of architect friends."

The polished gray marble floor is accented with lines of rough hewn stone. The furniture, also designed by Koman, is made of Java teak.

Name

Drawing on his father's name for a link to art world fame, and to signal the family connection, the gallery is named Komaneka. The first floor is presently reserved for the more commercial line of art for people who want a pretty picture of landscapes, flowers and Balinese dancers.

Interspersed are works by some big names in modern Indonesian art, like Affandi, as well as some good quality Balinese works. Eventually Koman plans to have the art of his choice in this part, but has not yet amassed enough such works.

Over the second floor, the ceiling is high, and dark glossy wood beams intersect in a geometric pattern. This is where the special exhibitions take place, the second, underway now, running until Aug. 18. Perhaps the architecture reflects the two sides of any holistic venture -- the building's foundations and first floor can be seen to represent the commercial foundations of the business. If these elements are strong, they can carry subsequent floors and high ceilings, which house and represent the more idealistic visions of an art patron.

The front of the building faces a small moat which one traverses on rough-hewn blocks of stone. On and around the building are no Balinese carved doors, no fancy detailing -- this is the modern Indonesian aesthetic. The one flaw is that plaster ledges on either side of the stairs to the second floor are already chipped and dirty. They beg for a marble slab on top to avoid that inevitable decay which happens so fast here. Behind the gallery, construction is going on for a larger complex.

Artists

Koman is especially interested in launching young unknown artists who show unusual creative promise. He wants to help them out, be the one to make their names.

When he goes to exhibitions, he sometimes turns up after the official opening so that he can better concentrate on the works without the distraction of the social scene. At the same time, Koman's goal is harmony between the big gallery owners in Bali. He is targeting a different kind of art for a different market.

"I don't like direct competition. I always go sideways. This is why I am focusing on contemporary art, art which depicts the actual present, and artists who don't look to the past but depict real themes."

Mythology, the nostalgia of the past, the exotic, the touristic, all rampant and for the most part overworked themes in art as seen in Bali, hold little interest for Koman. In keeping with this, the collectors he targets are the younger generation, emerging collectors who are seeking knowledge about art and whose taste and preoccupations mirror his own.

"It is easier for me to talk to them, " Koman says. "We are of the same generation, and we share many of the same concerns."

The current exhibition on the second floor illustrates Koman's taste and approach. It opened on July 20 and shows three artists from the Indonesian Arts Institute (ISI) in Yogyakarta -- Pande Ketut Taman, I Wayan Sudarna Putra (both from around Ubud) and Antonius Widodo (from Surabaya, East Java).

Taman is finishing up his studies at ISI, but the other two are still at the institute. They have all developed a style of their own.

The works are elegant, classy, with excellent colors, interesting compositions, one of the artists has a quirky sense of social commentary mixed with humor. None similar to the other. These artists will be worth following closely.

Many inquiries are made about prices. The prices are low at between Rp 750,000 and Rp 4 million. In this way, Koman aims to help both emerging artists and collectors. He will wait for a second show of their works to raise prices to the level they probably deserve.

Koman is not interested only in art by Balinese artists. He aims to feature emerging artists from all over Indonesia, whatever their backgrounds and concerns. Beyond Indonesia, he may move into representing artists from Southeast Asia and elsewhere, but retaining the regional focus.

Coming from his strong art patronage background, it is clear Koman wants to express a vision of his own. His Komaneka gallery signals the presence of a new art patron who is beginning to make a mark of his own.

Astri Wright is an associate professor of art history, B.C. Canada, and author of Soul, Spirit and Mountain: Preoccupations of Contemporary Indonesian Painters (Oxford University Press, 1994).