Information is abundant, it flashes before your eyes. The effect, it can feel like it’s hitting you in the face, pow! And then bham, you fall down. That’s more or less what Naufal Abshar meant by the title of his 4th solo exhibition, presented by Can's Gallery, since he decided to commit being an artist in 2015.
The exhibition “Flash, Pow, Bham! Man of 93 exhibition” took place at Space8 Ashta District, South Jakarta, from 25 November- 18 December. About 10,000 people visited the show, which displayed 52 of Naufal’s artworks. They were mostly completed in 2022, and some were made at the time of his residency in New York City in 2020.
At the opening of the show Naufal said, “Social media bothers me the most. I’m overwhelmed by it, where everyone can be a content creator and a consumer. Everybody can go viral for unimportant things without having to face a long process and make real achievements.” And his explanation on why some of his works are blurry is because now everything goes by so fast because people are now used to shorter durations of contents. Naufal often puts writing on his paintings, which is also inspired by social media that are mostly consisted of visuals and texts.
A lot of his artworks are about current trends and human behaviours. When beginning a career as an artist, his works were mostly paintings on canvas. Lately he’s developed an interest to kinetic art. Naufal’s first solo show in 2022 was in Taiwan, and now he’s got a few more places lining up to exhibit his works in other cities.
If you didn’t catch his solo show last month, you can visit Can’s Gallery 21st anniversary exhibition “Can’s Gallery Across the Time” that displays some of his works and other artists. The show takes place at Can’s Gallery, Jl Tanah Abang II no 25, Central Jakarta, and runs until 11 January 2023.