Artist Anthonius Kho journey of colors between Indonesia and the world

Artist Anthonius Kho's journey of colors between Indonesia and the world. Famous artist Anthonius Kho initially learned from well knownIndonesian artist Barli. When he was graduaeted the Academy of Fine Artin Bandung in Indonesia in 1982 years, he went to study in the Academyof Fine Art in Cologne, Germany, majoring glass painting and textile arts,after wich he went to Master School of Art where he was under thesupervision of Prof. Schaffmeister & M. Brinkhaus and finished hisstudies in 1991. In 1989 years he won the 1 st prize at the competition“Malen auf Liegestuehlen” Olivandenhof in Cologne, in Germany. In1998 years he again won the 1 st prize of “Mask in Venice”, ArtAddiction Annual in Venice, Italy. With this overseas art experiences,from 1984 years to 2020 yars, he do in total 33 solo exhibitions inIndonesia, India, Germany, Netherlands, France, Finland, USA, Vietnam,Vietnam, South Korea and China, and from 2005 to 2020 he wasparticipated in totally 114 group exhibitions held all over the worldincluding Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, UAE, USA, Canada, Egypt,Equador, Argentina, Panama, Peru, Mexico, Uruguay, Myanmar, China,Macau, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam,Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal, in the international Art Baselproject and in Saatchi gallery in London. It is not surprising that hisartworks have already been collected all over the world by republicmuseums, galleries and arts foundations as also by private collectors.Anthonius himself is also a very active player in the art scene as thefrequently organizes art exchange projects among artists.He is a well-known artist as a representative of bright colors andexpressive figurative style. His works combine Asian symbolism and theart of abstract expressionism. He often presents human figures or masksin various formats of paintings, which is the main feature of his style.Masks depict human social purpose and emotions. The dominant themesin his paintings are the search for identities and cultural diversity, whichis most revealed. A bright color palette dominates each work of theauthor of the painting. The main symbol of his work is the mask.Antonius’ paintings contain a high level of complexity that attract artcritics’ attentions. Originated from Chinese parents, Antonius was born inmiddle of Java, Indonesia. Figures of the Wayang puppet shows andpatterns of the batik designs, as well as human figures he observes indaily life provide huge source of images reproduced on his paintings in away that the original meanings of these cultural elements no longer exist;instead such folkloric emblems, mostly appear as masks, turn into justvisual symbols arranged in collages, mosaic and cubism-like patterns
which were also read by art critics as a representation of modernity andabstraction. One can also identify that “eye” lurks everywhere in hispaintings where according to Antonius, “they are the ultimate presence oftruth” he’s depicting, which shows his internal wish for observing peopleand life. With his background influenced both by east and west cultures,Antonius’ paintings are showing such tensions as well as thereconciliation between them. They are also complex or even chaoticrendering of unstable beings or figures that were drawn by interlockinglines and arranged in multiplicity of perspective, which may reflect thestate of his mind as a result of his rich life experiences ranging fromobserving humanity in daily life to having critical attitudes of socialphenomena based on both his east and west cultural exposures.Antonius is using mainly mix media of paper, rag & jute in his paintings.And nature plays a main role in his use of colour where earthy or yellowtone are commonly seen in his artworks.As Antonius likes observing people, “people” becomes the main subjectof his paintings. During the pandemic in 2022, while maintaining hisbasic styles, he further created a series of individual human figures invivid white colour to symbolize human’s innocence, honesty andauthenticity.In the international arts magazine “Contrasts” Anthonius presesnts thesedifferents artworks: “Wellcome”, Old angel”, “Tonguelless tongue”,“Labubu”, Prayer”, Healthy baby”. “Tonguellss tongue”, “Labubu”,“Prayer”, “Healthy baby”