In addition to having the power as an industrial city, Surabaya also has a very long history value starting from the Dutch colonial era, in the colonial period Surabaya was used as the center of the eastern region because of its strategic location, Surabaya has relatively easy access when compared to other cities, and finally developed until now it is the second largest city in Indonesia.

As the second largest city, Surabaya is of course a magnet for fortune-tellers to be able to get better luck than their home regions, of course this has a positive and negative impact simultaneously. The positive impact is the development of industry supported by abundant human resources, the growth of various activities that support the formation of new cultural ecosystems, and so on. Then the negative impact when many people are trying their luck in this city, with an area that does not increase but the population is getting denser, of course there will be an increase in population density, and when it happens, of course there will be many problems that arise, such as social problems, health and so on.

With conditions such as those illustrated in the previous paragraph, of course we can imagine the diversity of ethnic groups living in Surabaya, some of them such as Javanese, Madurese, who dominate in Surabaya besides that there are ethnic Arabs, Chinese, Batak and so on. Many of these ethnic groups or individuals bring their culture of origin and preserve it in Surabaya, of course with the organic process of growing multi-ethnic culture will certainly be very interesting and make the cultural ecosystem more crowded. But whether such activities are not harmful to Surabaya’s original culture, I think of course not, one example is the preservation of Ludruk, Remo dance as regional performing arts, then there is Lontong Balap, Rujak cingur as regional specialties and so on.

In this exhibition the artists involved in the exhibition entitled “SURABAYA CITY SCAPE” will depict what they encounter in the city of Surabaya, ranging from something exotic such as tourist attractions to things that are very intimate with the painter about Surabaya whether it is a problem encountered in this city related to social, cultural, political, or whatever, or even irrational things about Surabaya.

The artists involved in this exhibition are Aris Darmawan, Berty R, Djunaidi, Fauzi, Indra Janeb, Yoes Wibowo, Ulum. The 6 artists have different styles and techniques in creating paintings, it is interesting to see the combination of techniques they use through an exhibition.

Surabaya city scape is a title that describes Surabaya, the artists will summarize Surabaya seen through their point of view and then presented through painting media exhibited at Bisanta Hotel.

• Written as a curatorial introduction to the exhibition entitled Surabaya Cityscape
• In 13-31 May 2016
• At Bisanta Bidakara Hotel, Jl. Tegalsari 77-85 Surabaya