George Tokaya, Indonesian-born Dutch fine
artist loves to paint portraits to the backbone.
He was born in Surabaya (Indonesia), son of a sugar
planter, came to the Netherlands with his parents and sister.
His earliest love was drawing, and he began to work full time
as an portrait painter in the eighties. Portraits and naked figures
are preferred, often observed in arresting close-up. In his later
work (from the late 1980s) his handling became much broader.
As a painter sometimes George
Tokaya does 'escape' from the canvas to create installations.
In the last four years he has made several installations inspired
by the poetry of Harold Pinter. As well as the early poems
of Pinter (from 1953) as the most recent became a source of inspiration.
Tokaya has presented his installations in a project
called Scent of Disorder, an exhibition of contemporary
art which will reflect aspects of the ambivalence, in today's
world of warcrime, cruelty, horror, feelings of revenge and final
punishment.
Scent of Disorder is a story of extremes. This group of installations
is a contemporary, secular reaction to some of Harold Pinter's
poems. And because Harold Pinter writes so visually, so full
of images it is easy to picture the setting. Pinter's work is
an inspiration for the artist in residence to design installations
and graphics. Recitals by Harold Pinter of some of his poems
will accompany some of the installations.