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HANSENÂ THIAM SUN
House Artist
Hansen Thiam Sun was born in 1960 in Toho, a beautiful and pristine hamlet in West Kalimantan (Borneo).
The purity and beauty of the environment in which he grew up stimulated young Hansen to become deeply interest in visual arts, especially drawing, a hobby that became deeply embedded in his life even in adulthood. He has had his share of overseas travels and adventures. He returned to Indonesia in 1990 and resided in West Java for 13 years until he moved to Bali in 2003.
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In 1967, Hansen served as an apprentice to a painter, Mr. Lim Ngok Chung who instilled in the boy’s young mind a solid foundation that later became essential to his artistic development. In 1980, he studied mechanical design in Taipei, Taiwan. Simultaneously, he seized this opportunity to study abroad as a vehicle to further develop his artistic talent. Soon after graduating from college 1984, he worked for an American yacht manufacturing company as a designer and technical drawing specialist. This time, Hansen took a Yacht design specialization study at Westlawn School of Yacht Design in Connecticut.
While continuing the cultivation of his artistic talent in the United States, Hansen was directly influenced by a well-known architect and painter, Ms. Georgian. Under her guidance, he developed his own sense of style marked by an original and distinctive play of strokes that are characteristically simple and spontaneous.
Yet his works overflow with reflections of life in its myriad manifestations - reflection that are both subtle and philosophical. As a result, the artist has developed a mixture of abstract and minimalist art, resulting in a very unique style of his own.
WHERE
Acrylic on canvas
Where is part of a series Indonesian artist Thiam Sun Hansen started in 2009, portraying the underlying situation of children of today. In Where, the viewer can see three women of different origins. Firstly, we see an Asian woman who wears a sarong combined with a t-shirt, her feet clad in slippers; the second one is a Western woman wearing a summer dress, slippers and sunglasses, and lastly a young Asian girl dressed in Western teenage fashion. Whilst the older Asian walks in a confident stride, the younger one seems rather hesitant about her direction. Must she in fact follow the trodden path of tradition and wisdom marked with letters than could spell love? Or should she visit the other direction with looks of a grey, uncertain world strewn with shadows? The artist prods us to help rethink our children's future.
AVATAR IN THE CROWD
Acrylic on canvas
Rich in experience and not the one to favor angry overtones, Hansen’s subjects are comprised of simple everyday occurrences: children, people, animals and regular objects. Avatar in the Crowd expresses the changing faces of youth and the impact of Western influence in traditional cultures in third world countries. He distinguishes himself by using complex applications of textures and colors. His sensitivity towards his surroundings and his ability to express them in an unobtrusive manner makes him a favorite among both Indonesian and western art lovers alike.
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