THE STORY BEHIND OHANA
The concept of Ohana was born in ‘90s when founder, Telly Liando, started her “rock” collection - a pastime which includes collecting minerals, crystals, petrified wood and the like. She contemplated on how much hidden ‘treasure’ is buried under Indonesia’ rich natural resources.
After a series of disheartening experience witnessing an overwhelming amount of ‘abandoned’ tree roots dumped by irresponsible logging activities – Telly was determined to do something about it. She saw the remnants of these tree roots and determined to utilize it. She thus had an idea of extracting these buried roots and transforming it into furniture pieces that is aesthetically pleasing and yet still environmentally conscious.
Telly’s journey did not stop there. Over the years, she felt the same way regarding Indonesian local painters and wood carvers. She has always been advocate of promoting local talents – who is often underrepresented and overlooked. Despite their excellent craftsmanship, a lot of these local talents did not get much credit due to limited feasibility and resources. Thus, she made it her goal to create a space as an outlet for our local talents to showcase their finest artworks.
Alas – Ohana Gallery was born.
TELLY LIANDO
Telly Liando is the Founder of Ohana Gallery she is a Civil Engineer by training, Businesswoman by trade and an Art enthusiast by passion. She runs a thriving IT Company in Jakarta and during her off days she would venture off to the gallery to pursue her passion in collecting art.
Being exposed to wood craftsmanship in such an early age, her grandfather started out as a carpenter in the mountains of Sulawesi, the roots for her love of wood carvings runs deep in the family.
From such a young age she has build her collection of mineral stones and wood carvings. she acquired a plethora of art pieces from all over Indonesia, where she has found beauty across any form and medium of art.
Her passion for Mineral Stones, Wood Carvings & Fine Arts has been derived from her love for nature where she finds aesthetic in art should come naturally. Her philosophy is that art is a reflection of life and nature, hence nature itself is a form of art.
In the world of Fine Arts, she has been known to incubate rising young talents and facilitate them to grow. She pours her time and effort to polish young talents to unveil their promising potential to the world.
Ohana Gallery is a medium to preserve the heritage of art the way she knows best. Art as she describes it is “Art is a God’s gift for us as the medium to balance our mind, without art one’s life is not complete.”
STEPHANIE OESMAN
Stephanie is an avid student of life. Having an insatiable curiosity, Stephanie embrace challenges and believe in a life-long learning. She believes in turning against the odd and carving her own path.
At the age of twenty-one, she obtained her MBA degree from Pepperdine, not long after she received her undergraduate degree from USC. She didn’t stop there; she spent years honing her finance skills working for corporate America (Metro Goldwyn Mayer, 21th Century Fox, US Bank & Merrill Lynch – to name a few).
Despite her stellar resume, Stephanie always felt that home is where her heart is. Family is her highest priority and so she returned to motherland. Upon her return, it didn’t take long for her to realize that running Ohana Gallery was her calling and passion in life.
For her, the gallery meant so much more than just a business. The gallery was a bridge to connect the past and the future, whilst preserving heritage and continuing her family legacy. It all made sense.
Realizing that this is only the beginning, Stephanie believes that the next step is to promote it and to make it available to the global market. She is an advocate of promoting local talent and utilizing natural resources in the way that nature has intended: raw, authentic, and purposeful.
ANDREW BERNADUS
At the core, Andrew is an enterprising philanthropist. Graduated from Loyola Marymount University with an entrepreneurship degree, he valued the importance of giving back to community.
Andrew serves as the COO and community liaison for Ohana Gallery. Through LMU alumni network and as founder, Andrew has organized many charitable events. From feeding earthquake and flood victims, visiting orphanages, and campaigning to fund charitable activities, Andrew believes that with the amount of privileges he has in life, the right thing to do is to help the less fortunate.
With Andrew’s accommodating nature and friendly approach, he is truly a benevolent figure who aims to help Indonesian local communities by incubating and developing Indonesian talents. In Andrew's words: "Change can be made, little by little, starting from our own local communities".