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Known for their melancholic and often austere pieces, artists Andy Dewantoro and Davy Linggar are holding a joint exhibition at the Vivi Yip gallery this month at the Vivi Yip Art Room in Warung Buncit, South Jakarta.

“Cold Memories” showcases works that “dissect reality” and represent a fresh approach toward painting, photography and new media art, says the show’s curator, Rifky Effendy.

The Lampung-born Andy, who is known for his paintings of urban landmarks and buildings around Indonesia, displays some of his most grim and barren works. Most are in black and white, with some blue-gray in several pieces that adds a sense of dolefulness akin to staring at old faded photographs. Buildings, highway bridges and tall shadowy trees are drawn either from afar or in close up, evoking a sense of abandonment, as if they were remnants of a post-apocalyptic world.

“Infinite Sadness 1” (whose title sounds suspiciously like an ode to the 1995 album “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness” by grunge band Smashing Pumpkins), portrays what appears to be an old government building surrounded by tall pine trees amid a glum bluish backdrop, a desolate setting that, strangely, has a somewhat hypnotic effect on the viewer.

In “Infinite Sadness 3 #11,” an empty, seemingly endless road is framed by tall, indistinct trees, and again there is a sense of isolation.

An even bleaker metropolis is depicted in “Infinite Sadness 3 #15,” which shows a silhouetted factory from across a field, with warehouses and factory chimneys against a dull sky.

“Stories of spirit and apparitions that reside in those places become urban legends,” Rifky says.

Andy’s paintings are like the haunted buildings in reality shows that “evoke horror imagery,” he says.

Davy Linggar’s works represent an entirely different method of creation. Linggar applies Polaroid pictures to canvas — often through digital enlargements, on which he then paints.

“They speak of irony and the taboos of society” Rifky says.

In “Harram tapi Enak” (“Forbidden by Tasteful”), Davy illustrates a T-Rex dinosaur fornicating with a pig. The picture could be read as a cynical commentary on the Muslim prohibition against eating pork, or perhaps on the archaic views regarding sex in this country.

“In our society today, there are many social mores and demands which create a hypocritical society by shunning and forbidding things that are in fact our deepest desires,” Davy says.

The works in “Cold Memories” present the artists’ unique perspectives, formed by memories and interpretations that are sure to move the viewer, Rifky says.

“Andy and Davy are reconstructing a new reality,” he said.