Richard Koh Fine Art invites you to enter into a state of deep calm and contemplation during "All You Could Hear" which is running until July 22.
On display are paintings of curved organic shapes and golden celestial orbs floating in deep expanses of blue hues by Sinta Tantra, a New York-born Balinese artist known for her colourful large-scale public artworks and geometric paintings.
The exhibition is inspired by a letter her father wrote to her on the evening of the Balinese festival of Nyepi -- a day of silence and meditation. It reads: "The whole island is so dark, beautiful and quiet... no street lights... all you can hear are crickets."
Drawing on this vivid image of home, the artist explores the meditative qualities of making and viewing and our relationship with nature and the universe.
Her paintings follow a vertical format, an orientation typically used in traditional Chinese scrolls and paintings. Circles form a recurring motif in the works, creating a focal point and playing on the symbolism used in meditation practices. But, they can also be seen as cosmic -- planets or even solar systems, the emergence of a moon in a midnight sky or its slow fading at the first break of dawn.
While most of the canvases are painted with layers of Prussian blue to create a dark velvety ground, other smaller works use gold as a background to darken the blue to the point that the shapes appear like bottomless chasms or tunnels through the canvas.
The temporal transformation of colour and form is central to all of the works on display. They are activated by the changing daylight to continually offer fresh perspectives and atmospheres.
In this way, viewers are encouraged to consider how the passage of time and their cultural and physical positioning affects how they interpret images and space.
Richard Koh Fine Art is on the 9th floor of Peterson Building, Sukhumvit Road, and opens Tuesday to Saturday from 11am to 7pm.
Visit rkfineart.com.
Artwork by Sinta Tantra. photo courtesy of Richard Koh Fine Art
Artwork by Sinta Tantra. Richard Koh Fine Art
