Galeria Sophilia — Attraction in Jakarta

Visiting an art gallery nourishes you with the beauty of art (in this case, painting). Art hands us the chance to analyze what message the artists were trying to get across to the audience and to make our own interpretation of the art based on our rich and diverse life experiences, thus facilitating communication between us and the artists that transcends time and space.

Galeria Sophilia (or Sophilia Fine Art Center) is located in Calvin Tower and consists of 2 floors: 6th Floor for Western Paintings and 7th Floor for Chinese artifacts and other collections (you can't take any picture or video on the 7th Floor). Since the title or description isn't always there, the gallery provides touring events. The tour guide will explain to you about the simple yet concise timeline and progression of painting styles with their interpretation, starting from Renaissance, then Baroque, Neoclassicism, Romanticism, until Black Paintings and Impressionism. The tour was fun and not boring at all, especially if you're interested in the topic. The duration of the tour is about 1 hour, and you can choose to directly attend the tour event on 7th floor if you would like to.

Anyway, I very much enjoyed observing and analyzing the magnificent paintings there. Some of them are: "The Creation of Adam" by Michelangelo (c. 1512), "The Death of Socrates" by Jacques-Louis David (1787), "Liberty Leading The People" by Eugène Delacroix (1830), "A Storm in the Rocky Mountains, Mt. Rosalie" by Albert Bierstadt (1866), "The Sacred Family" by Pompeo Batoni (1760), "St. Peter" by Pompeo Batoni (c. 1769), "The School of Athens" by Raphael (1509-1511), "Psyche et L'Amour" by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1889), and so on.

It's a shame that the gallery is only open for 3 hours, from 12.00 p.m. to 03.00 p.m. on every Sunday, except some special opening days on Saturday that you can check on their official Instagram account (@galeriasophilia). I like their simple ticketing system though, where you just have to go there and buy the tickets depending on your age bracket. Definitely will revisit...

One of the best gallery in Jakarta (IMO). Galeria Sophilia stores hundreds of replicas of famous paintings, from renaissance era to post-impressionism (6th floor) and ancient chinese relics (7th floor) Went there for the second time last week and decided to write some pros and cons, so here they are: (+) free guided tour every hour, and the guide are quite resourceful (+) entrance fee is 100k, quite affordable considering it has TONS of european paintings and ancient chinese relics (-) the lighting was not good, i wish the gallery put brighter lamps so i can enjoy the paintings better (-) not every paintings has title and painter notes beside it, so sometimes i wonder who made it (-) this gallery allows visitors to take photos, and most people come with pretty dresses to take instagramable pics (which taking alot of time and spaces), but there are some other visitors (including me) who visit to enjoy the paintings, so please respect each others (-) only open on sunday :(

But anyway, i really enjoy the gallery and it wont be the last...

It’s truly unfortunate to have such a bad experience from the very first moment I entered this place. Is it because I wear a hijab? I felt a strong sense of discrimination. I was treated poorly there both by the staff and other visitors. I was singled out and received warnings for reasons I didn’t even understand, even though other visitors were doing the same things. I was simply viewing the artworks. It’s such a shame that a gallery as beautiful as this has such poor service. On top of that, being given only three hours to explore three large floors felt very limiting. Each artwork was also difficult to understand because there were no explanations provided. Even when I tried to join the guided tour, it felt rushed and didn’t give enough time to explore everything. Please improve the quality of...