Light / Dark mode

The Dapper Gent

Wang Zineng, Founder of Art Agenda, S.E.A

Venue : Art Stage Jakarta 2017

Zineng, spotted at the booth of his gallery, Art Agenda S.E.A

Where is your outfit from?

My suit and shoes are from Rossi, Singapore, the shirt is from Sam’s Tailor, Hong Kong and the socks are from Falke.

Tell us a bit about that awesome tie?

Thank you. It is vintage Yves Saint Laurent, a gift of the Wife. Vintage is better than run-of-the-mill contemporary designs.

How do you decide what to wear to an art fair?

I try to coordinate the colours of my outfit to the design and colours of my booth and the artworks on display. Thinking of how to juxtapose and contrast against the artworks is fun.

Tell us something interesting about the work you’ve been photographed next to, and why you like it.

The painting titled Sehampar Dari Teman (Camaraderie) is a 1993 work of Nashar (1928-1994), one of Indonesia’s most iconoclastic modern painters. Nashar’s works from the 1980s on were greatly shaped by his understanding of the concept of yin and yang. His works began to take on seemingly opposing forces that are interrelated to each other, most obviously in works such as Dari Sehampar Teman (Camaraderie) where the canvas is split into two halves, an upper and a lower, defined by two contrasting coloured backgrounds.

In the foreground of each of the halves, seemingly throbbing amorphous forms with their life-like tendrils and jagged ends, pulsate with a certain energy that recalls the figural world but is at the same time hard to define as representational.

Colours obviously play a significant function in Nashar’s works, very much like in the works of the American modern painter, Milton Avery (whose works relied on the relations between colours). When seen alongside, my predominantly brown outfit tries to extend the colour palette of the painting!

Support our work on Patreon