Christine Ay Tjoe
Born
Christine Ay Tjoe

(1973-09-27)27 September 1973
Bandung, West Jawa, Indonesia
Known forPainter, Fashion Designer

Christine Ay Tjoe (born 27 September 1973) is an Abstract Expressionist painter from Bandung, Indonesia. Ay Tjoe's artwork style is mostly abstract imagery, with the expressions of human emotions and flawed figurative objects by using colors that has developed from primarily muted to bright hues color. As for the use of mediums, she excels in painting and printmaking; her art features strong lines, abstracted figurative elements, and a unique brushstroke technique. Given the style of her works, she has received several international awards to recognize her contributions. Her artworks received high appreciation and great market value overseas.

Early life

Christine Ay Tjoe was born on September 27, 1973, in Bandung, the capital of Indonesia’s West Java province. [1][2] In 1997, she graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts and Design of the Bandung Institute of Technology. [3]She started her career as an assistant fashion designer before actively working as an artist. Her works include paintings, soft sculptures, and large-scale installations.[4]

Style and Technique

Ay Tjoe is one of the thriving female artists from the 90s generation who works in conventional mediums such as painting and printmaking.[4] As a graduate of the Bandung Institute of Technology, she studied various art techniques, including intaglio printing and graphic arts.[5][6] She began her career specialising in printmaking, later exploring intaglio drypoint prints, woodcuts, and textiles.[7] The process of drawing is the essence of her works; she treats every medium as paper and pencil, as stated by Ay Tjoe in her interview with the Studio International.[7] Having explored various art techniques to express herself on a larger scale, Ay Tjoe transitioned from drypoint on a paper to oil bar on canvas, which has now become her signature medium.[8]

Derived from Southeast Asia's cultural diversity and ethnic background, the artist's works explore themes based on Christian narratives and spiritual concepts, emphasizing human imperfections and duality (Janus-faced nature).[9][5][10] Her works are synonymous with the presence of strong lines, showing flawed figurative objects that are intensely abstracted.[11][12] She uses the brushstroke technique in presenting rough to smooth transitions to breaking into harmony.[12] Through layered abstract imagery, Ay Tjoe expresses human emotions such as melancholy, struggle, pain, and happiness, depicted from clusters of color throughout the images; She balances positive and negative space and color to illustrate the interconnectivity of humanity and nature.[4][5][10]

From 2010 onwards, the color in her paintings gradually shifted from primarily muted and washed-out earth tones to bright hues of rose, pale pink, vermillion, ochre, and rich brown, giving her compositions a more intimate feel.[8] A prime example is in the painting The Curious Hole which depicts a potent sense of a beginning – a delicate interpretation of the exhilaration of birth and the fragility of newborn life – created during a special period when her first child was born.[8]

In the painting The Workers Ay Tjoe uses the intaglio drypoint technique and experiments with line architecture and form to enact each stroke with whimsy and improvisation. For direct engagement with the piece, she uses her hands and rubs the rough lines with her own palms to create a profound mix of color fields.[13] The Workers conveys a sensation of polar opposites between loneliness and joy, most dramatically with black and white compositions. Through this painting, Ay Tjoe describes the significance of teamwork and partnership, the value of love, giving, and working together to create a world of kindness, faith, hope, and love.[13]

Solo Exhibitions

While Ay Tjoe's works address many aspects of humanity, each of her solo exhibitions represents her view of the relationship between individuals and the general public at that time.

Eksekusi Ego(2006)

After her solo in Edwin's Gallery in 2003, Ay Tjoe returned to Jakarta, Indonesia again in 2016 for her fourth solo. Eksekusi Ego, "Ego Execution" in translation, expresses the artist's exploration of the existence of self and questioning the things people take for granted. The series of pencil works "blurs the ego by concealing the faces or identities in the collective of figures that now appear in layered meanings."(Carla Bianpoen)[14] Compared to her previous exhibitions, which mainly focus on individuality, she seems "now desperately trying to comply with society"(Carla Bianpoen), killing one's ego to blend in general.

Panorama Without Distance(2009)

This artwork won her the first SCMP/Art Futures award in Hong Kong.[15] She used typewriters connected to loudspeakers as interaction tools. [16]Ay Tjoe also addresses the thought that humans can reach another reality only by going beyond or even tearing down the forms of chaotic daily activities. As art critic Hendro Wiyanto comments: ”Only by going beyond daily symptoms, perhaps also by destroying its phenomenal forms, can a screen to another reality be discovered. Only by going beyond the chaos, without denying it, can we encounter the cosmos, a cosmos that contains chaos or a chaosmos.” [17]

BLACK, KCALB, BLACK, KCALB(2018)

In Ay Tjoe's 2018 exhibition at White Cube, London, she used black as the main feature to represent "the dark potential which all people have."[18] She was inspired by an essay written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe about Faust; the story depicts humanity as a whole, encompassing both the positive and negative aspects of body and soul. Through the story, she discovered a particular delve into the darker aspects of human nature. ‘The reality is that darkness is part of human nature’[19] Ay Tjoe reasserts the concept of imperfection, and hopes to call upon humans to be independent individuals with good deeds despite humans not being perfect by nature.

List of Solo Exhibitions [20]
Year Title Location
2001 Buka Untuk Melihat Redpoint Gallery, Bandung, Indonesia
2002 At The Day of German Unity German Embassy, Jakarta, Indonesia
2003 Reach Me Cemeti Art House, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Aku / Kau / Uak Edwin's Gallery, Jakarta, Indonesia[6]
2006 Eksekusi Ego Edwin's Gallery, Jakarta, Indonesia
2007 Silent Supper Ark Galerie, Jakarta, Indonesia
2008 Wall Prison (part two) Scope Miami Art Fair, Miami, United States
Interiority of Hope Emmitan CA Gallery, Surabaya, Indonesia
2009 Panorama Without Distance Hong Kong Art Fair, Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre
Eating Excess Singapore Tyler Print Institute, Singapore
2010 Lama Sabahktani Club Lawangwangi Art & Science Estate, Bandung, Indonesia
Symmetrical Sanctuary Sigi Art Gallery, Jakarta, Indonesia
2015 Perfect Imperfection SongEun ArtSpace Seoul, South Korea
2018 BLACK, KCALB, BLACK, KCALB[21] White Cube London, United Kingdom
Spirituality and Allegory 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan [22]
2021 Spinning in the Desert White Cube, Hong Kong[14]
2022 Personal Denominator ARTJOG MMCCII. Commissioned Artist: Reflection on the Pandemic[23]
2023 The Uncompromising #01 Shanghai, China

Important Joint Exhibitions

Christine Ay Tjoe's important joint exhibitions took place in several countries, including China, the USA, the UK, Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Italy. China National Museum of Fine Art (2003), 1st Beijing International Art Biennale (2003), Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York (2005) National Gallery, Jakarta (2009) Shanghai Contemporary (2010), Saatchi Gallery, London (2011) Fondazione Claudio Buziol, Venice (2011), Singapore Art Museum (2012), National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung (2012), Royal Academy of Arts, London (2017), Asia Society Triennial, New York (2020), Mnuchin Gallery, NY, USA (2023) Joan Mitchell and Christine Ay Tjoe: Two trailblazers of 20th and 21st Century abstraction[24]

Awards

  • In 2007, she was awarded one of the top five winners of the Philips Morris Indonesia Art Award.[25]
  • In 2008, she received an award for her performance in the solo role of Interiority of Hope at the Emitant Gallery in Surabaya. In the same year she became an artist residency at STPI Creative Workshop & Gallery in Singapore.
  • In 2009 she was awarded the SCMP Art Futures Prize Winner at the Hong Kong Art Fair.
  • In 2015 she received the Prudential Eye Award.[26]

Art Market

Her contemporary paintings have received high appreciation abroad, especially in Asia. In 2017 her painting entitled Small Flies and Other Wings was sold for HK$11.7 Million by the Phillips auction house in Hong Kong, which placed her works among the most expensive living Indonesian artists. The painting depicts life and death, visualized by a swarm of flies.[27] The prices for paintings of Christine remain high. In 2021, her painting Second Studio from 2013 was sold by Sotheby's for HK$7.4 Million in Hong Kong.[28]


References

  1. ↑ "Christine Ay Tjoe | Blue Cryptobiosis #10". The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 2023-11-06.
  2. ↑ "Ay Tjoe Christine". Ota Fine Arts. Retrieved 2023-11-06.
  3. ↑ "Christine Ay Tjoe - Artists - Mnuchin Gallery". www.mnuchingallery.com. Retrieved 2023-11-06.
  4. 1 2 3 cube, White. "White Cube - Artists - Christine Ay Tjoe". whitecube.com. Retrieved 2023-05-17.
  5. 1 2 3 "21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa. | Ay Tjoe Christine : Spirituality and Allegory". 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa. Retrieved 2023-05-17.
  6. 1 2 "Ay Tjoe Christine". Ota Fine Arts. Retrieved 2023-05-18.
  7. 1 2 Biswas, Allie. "Christine Ay Tjoe: 'I will always treat every medium as paper and pencil'". www.studiointernational.com. Retrieved 2023-05-17.
  8. 1 2 3 ArtDependence. "ArtDependence | Christine Ay Tjoe Leads Sotheby's Brushwork III - Abstract Masters". artdependence.com. Retrieved 2023-05-17.
  9. ↑ "Christine Ay Tjoe - Artists - Mnuchin Gallery". www.mnuchingallery.com. Retrieved 2023-05-17.
  10. 1 2 Tanaka, Yukari (2018-04-24). "'Ay Tjoe Christine: Spirituality and Allegory'". The Japan Times. Retrieved 2023-05-17.
  11. ↑ Mukmin, Patriot; Adriati, Ira; Damajanti, Irma. "The Existence of Women Artists in Indonesian Artworld". 3rd International Seminar of Nusantara Heritage 2014.
  12. 1 2 Lifi, Rafika (2018-06-18). "Ay Tjoe dan White Cube, Setelah Dua Tahun". Sarasvati (in Indonesian). Retrieved 2023-05-17.
  13. 1 2 Sotheby’s (October 2, 2019). "Anguish and Salvation in Christine Ay Tjoe's Uplifting Masterpiece 'The Workers'".
  14. 1 2 Christine Ay Tjoe Exhibitions, Ocula
  15. ↑ "Indonesian wins inaugural art award". South China Morning Post. 2009-05-15. Retrieved 2023-11-06.
  16. ↑ "Indonesian Visual Art Archive | Detil Koleksi Dokumen". archive.ivaa-online.org. Retrieved 2023-11-06.
  17. ↑ Hendro, Wiyanto (2009). "Panorama without distance" (PDF). Indonesian Visual Art Archive.
  18. ↑ "Christine Ay Tjoe: Blackening Our Name". COBO Social. 2018-12-28. Retrieved 2023-05-17.
  19. ↑ cube, White. "White Cube - Gallery Exhibitions - Black, kcalB, Black, kcalB". whitecube.com. Retrieved 2023-05-17.
  20. ↑ Ay Tjoe, Christine (2010). Lama sabakhtani club (1st ed.). Bandung, Indonesia: Lawangwangi Art & Science Estate. ISBN 978-6029673500. OCLC 708638176.
  21. ↑ "Christine Ay Tjoe: Black, kcalB, Black, kcalB". Artnet. Retrieved 2018-12-18.
  22. ↑ Ay Tjoe Christine: Spirituality and Allegory, Apr-Aug 2018
  23. ↑ ARTJOG 2022 - Christine Ay Tjoe
  24. ↑ Mnuchin Gallery, NY, USA Two trailblazers of 20th and 21st Century abstraction. 9th Feb-18th Mar 2023
  25. ↑ 'Metamorfosis' Ay Tjoe Christine di Art Jakarta 2018. Rahman Indra, 22.July 2018 in HW-HerWorld.co.id
  26. ↑ Prudential Eye Awards 2015: Winners' List. The second edition of the Prudential Eye Awards will take place in Singapore on 20 January 2015.
  27. ↑ Christine Ay Tjoe-Small Flies and Other Wings. Phillips, HK, auction 28.May 2017, Lot 29
  28. ↑ Contemporary Art Evening Sale, 19 April 2021, Sotheby's, HK
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