Watercolor on Paper
100 x 150 cm
Anggrek Agency is pleased to present Yen Melia Andreas in her first solo exhibition, and her first time exhibiting in Europe, titled “She Blooms in Colors.”
Yen Melia Andreas (Indonesian, *1996) completed her Bachelor of Architecture degree before rediscovering her passion for art as a means to express her personal experiences. After graduating from Parahyangan Catholic University, Andreas enrolled in a year-long online fine art program at the Milan Art Institute. Her artistic journey continued as she joined the Atreyu Moniaga Project, an art incubator program, where she further honed her skills and developed her unique artistic voice.
Trained with the precision of an architect and with other artistic skills she picked up from the streets rather than formal art education, Andreas paints beautiful female figures in an oriental style that reflects her experiences, including her struggles to carve out her space within society. Her work serves as a reminder to appreciate one’s growth, to navigate trust issues with others, and to cherish simple moments in life, such as living in the present and enjoying the beauty of all seasons.
This solo exhibition, consisting of seven watercolor paintings framed with Museum Glass by the wonderful people of Geiser Rahmen, set out as the first part of a series. It will be followed by a three-person exhibition showcasing the use of figurative language in paintings, where Andreas and two other artists will display their oil on canvas works.
Please join us at the opening reception of She Blooms in Colors, with the artist in attendance, on Friday 5th April 2024, from 18:00 to 22:00.
The exhibition runs until Wednesday 15th May 2024.
Anggrek Agency
Turbinenstrasse 46
CH-8005 Zurich
Opening hour:
Wednesday - Saturday: 11:00 - 18:00
Sunday - Tuesday: open by appointment
Text by Venerdi Handoyo
It's springtime for the seeds of numerous flowers that Yen Melia Andreas has quietly gathered throughout her life and planted in her own garden over the past few years. These seeds were initially collected in her hometown, a city in North Sumatra, Indonesia, where she was born into a society still steeped in archaic values that favored sons over daughters. The misogynistic repression was compounded by her Chinese descent, making her part of a minority in the country.
In the remote city of Pangkalan Kerinci, Andreas and her family took the first steps towards breaking free from societal confinements by collecting another batch of seeds. Living in Bali and Bandung during the subsequent stages of her life exposed her to an even wider variety of seeds—those of self-discovery, dreams, and artistic expressions.
Since 2020, Andreas, now based in Jakarta, has entered the main chapter of her life. Leaving behind her career as an architect, she now channels her creativity through fluid brush strokes on canvas, juxtaposing striking contrasts of subdued colors. In this process, she releases the bottled-up energy she has long harnessed, often in solitude. Perseverance, liberation, and independence are richly manifested, blossoming around female figures adorned with thin lips and sharp, slanted eyes.
Her determination is stronger than the intergenerational repressions she has faced. Yen has won her battles without raising her voice. Her power is subtle, her resilience quiet.
Through her artistic pursuits, Andreas has found a voice to express her innermost thoughts and emotions, channeling her energy into creating striking works of art that reflect themes of perseverance, liberation, and independence. Despite facing intergenerational repressions and being a minority, Andreas has triumphed quietly, showcasing the transformative power of self-discovery and artistic expression.
Anggrek Agency is thrilled to present Pleasure Boy, a selection of Polaroid Collages by multidisciplinary British artist Stuart Sandford (British, *1978).
Sandford works across (and often combines) different media, including photography, sculpture, painting, moving image, and installation, and has pushed the boundaries of artistic expression, fearlessly delving into themes of identity, queer culture, and the complex nature of human relationships.
In recent times, Sandford has ventured into the realm of sculptures, working with traditional materials such as bronze and marble but with a 21st Century approach of using state of the art 3D scanning and modelling. Whilst these sculptures can take many months or even years to complete, one fascinating facet of his artistic journey comprises his Polaroid Collages, which can best be described as an embodiment of instant sculpture.
Sandford’s captivating use of Polaroid photography as a medium enables him to capture both fleeting moments and deeper emotional narratives. By seamlessly blending intimate moments with both animate and inanimate objects such as flowers, plants, vintage road signs, landscapes, etc., he creates a compelling visual narrative that draws us into a realm where reality converges with imagination.
Sandford’s work has been shown in galleries and art institutions around the world such as Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit and Centre de la Photographie Geneva, it’s part of the permanent collection of the Tom of Finland Foundation in Los Angeles, and appears in many important private collections including the Sir Elton John Photography collection, the Koç Collection, and the Rennie Collection.
By Francesco Dama
Over the past five years Stuart Sandford has been taking polaroids, which he has then cut and reassembled in new compositions. The resulting body of work, titled Polaroid Collages, and the companion series Polaroid Collages - LA/CDMX made in 2022, document the artist’s social circle - his “friends, lovers & others”, in his own words - in several locations between Los Angeles, Europe, and Mexico.
Taking a polaroid finds a perfect equivalent in writing down a note: both actions share the same immediacy and respond to the same urgency of fixing an idea before it disappears. It’s something that has to do with capturing a thought or an instant, clinging to a moment in the awareness that we’ll be able to go back to it, in the form of memories. Promises of a pleasure yet to come.
Stuart describes his pictures in poetic terms, referring to them as “instant sculptures that, held in your hand, come alive and sing”. Their physical nature is enhanced by the cuts and the junction lines left visible on the surface of each photograph, reminding us that these are images made of different pieces.
Thus fragmented, the men in the Polaroid Collages strike for their vulnerability. They inhabit a place of intimacy and tenderness, slipping through life, effortlessly.
It’s here that one revisits those captured thoughts: in the towering palm trees of Laveta Terrace; in the melancholic gaze of a young man whose name we’ll never know; in the low rays of sun that turn everything they reach into gold, come dusk.
Stuart has kept his promises.
Anggrek, 2024
Anggrek, 2024
Photo: Stefan Berdat
Anggrek, 2024
Anggrek, 2024
Anggrek, 2024
Anggrek, 2024
Anggrek, 2024
Anggrek, 2024
Anggrek, 2024
Anggrek, 2024
Anggrek, 2024