Works of Erica Hestu Wahyuni are infectious. They brighten up walls and the surrounding space, generating a positive, happy feeling all round. Naïve-like, they best epitomize the stirring strains of Louis Armstrong’s What A Wonderful World. My Apple World tells of the freedom of spirit and celebration, with the symbolic Statue of Liberty in New York, or what is dubbed The Big Apple. For good measure, there are the landmarks like the Dutch windmills and the London Bridge, fishes and birds and animals (giraffe) all in a roller-coaster spin of the joie de vivre. Underlying all the tapestry of Man, flora and fauna is the quality of Love – of living, of things all around us, whether man-made or natural. Born in Yogyakarta, Erica started painting from young before enrolling at the Indonesian Fine Art Institute, Yogyakarta, where her teachers included Nyoman Gunarsa, Agus Burhan and Wardoyo. She also had a learning stint at the Surikov Art Institute in Moscow, Russia. Her early mentors were Suharto PR and Herry Wibowo. She had her first solo at Purna Budaya in Yogyakarta in 1995, and had taken part in the Osaka Triennale (1993) and the Museum of Contemporary Art exhibition in Moscow in 2000.