Hi Five 2011

Nyoman Masriadi’s painting, ‘Hi Five,’ presents a strangely lit scene between two sharply dressed men, seemingly painted in oil. The figures are outlined with dark tones with the planes of their faces defined by sharp contrasts. The surface has a smooth, slightly waxy feel, and it’s not clear whether the artist used brushes or rags to spread the paint, obscuring the trace of their hand. Yet, the textures on their skin are deeply affective: the way that light bounces off the man’s forehead and the way their hands hang heavy at their sides. Look at the way the buildings are rendered in the background, and then the men in the foreground; the composition makes the men feel like looming giants. The men exchange a dialogue that is stilted and odd, a ‘Hi Five’ returned by ‘U mean?’. There’s something humorous and slightly menacing about Masriadi's vision, and maybe something that connects his work to that of someone like Peter Saul. But where Saul satirizes with grotesque colors and forms, Masriadi is more grounded in the absurdities of everyday life.