Dadang Christanto

Dadang Christanto has spent his career honouring the countless victims of political violence and crimes against humanity. His work expresses the suffering of victims and lays bare the anguish and grief that is endured in silence by those left behind. Despite the raw socio-political nature of his work, Christanto continues to produce art which pleads for compassion, regardless of differing faiths and political beliefs.

Dadang Christanto is an internationally acclaimed artist who has been curated into major art events worldwide including the Sydney Biennale (2010), the Venice Biennale (2003), Yogyakarta Biennial, Indonesia (2003), Kwangju Biennale, South Korea (2000), the Bienal de Sao Paulo, Brazil (1998) and the first and third Asia-Pacific Triennials of Contemporary Art, Brisbane (1993 & 1999). His work is held in major public and private collections around the globe.

The series of heads exhibited in ‘austral-asia zero three’ (Sherman Galleries, 2003) and shown previously at the Alliance Française Gallery in Yogyakarta, refer to the relentless cruelty of humankind among those of different faiths or political systems. The disappearance of multitudes of Indonesian political dissidents during the mid-1960s purges, when Dadang’s father was lost without trace, is a recurring theme in the artist’s oeuvre.

Born:
Central Java in 1957

Education
1975–77 Pawiyatan Sanggarbambu, Yogyakarta, Indonesia (painting)
1975–79 Sekolah Menengah Seni Rupa (SMSR), Yogyakarta, Indonesia (painting)
1980–86 Indonesian Fine Arts Institute (ISI), Yogyakarta, Indonesia
1999–03 Lecturer, School of Art and Design, Northern Territory University, Darwin
2004 Lecturer, College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales, Sydney

Artworks by Dadang Christanto