sculpture

28
Oct
2022
Nguyễn Dinh Vu

Nguyễn Dinh Vu

Vietnamese painting is mainly a twentieth century phenomenon. In contrast to other Asian countries, Vietnamese artists in the feudal period did not practise the art of painting, but devoted themselves to sculpture and the decoration of temples and pagodas. At the end of the nineteenth century, the French introduced the technique of oil-painting to Vietnam and in 1925 they established the ‘Ecole des Beaux-Art l’Indochine’ in Hanoi. This marks the beginnings of a professional class of painters, who painted ‘after nature’ in a realistic and impressionistic style.

After the war against France, the separation of North and South Vietnam in 1954, followed by the war between the North and the South, the artists followed completely different courses. The artists from the North (under influence of the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China) turned in the direction of the social-realistic stream, while the southern artists embraced western trends, influenced by the presence of the Americans. Nevertheless, neither the influences was decisive in the development of Vietnamese Modern Art.

Despite the “Doi Moi”, Vietnam’s Perestroika – which allowed contemporary Vietnamese artists more freedom, was introduced in 1986, most of the artists did not direct their attention to the (western) preoccupation with changing of the frontiers of Vietnamese art. Combining traditional methods on modern materials like lacquer on wood, using (traditional) motifs and techniques, the younger generation of Vietnamese artists have gone throught a revival of the use of traditional elements in stead, involving different forms of arts, such as installation, performance and video art.

Nguyen Dinh Vu combines materials as metaphor for the layers of history. Old newspaper often forms a second base on his canvas. The figures in blue and white have resemblance with the antique Chinese porcelain. His famous metaphoric man in suits with golden box head surrounded by Chinese/Vietnamese motifs slowly make room for more impasto* abstract works.

In fine art, the Italian word ‘Impasto’ (dough or paste) denotes a painting technique in which undiluted paint is applied so thickly (like toothpaste) onto the canvas or panel (often with a palette knife) that it stands out from the surface.

Born:
1980 in Thai Nguyen, Vietnam
Lives and works in Hanoi

Education:
Vietnam University of Fine Arts (2013)

Artworks by Nguyen Dinh Vu

Posted by in artist
28
Oct
2022
Herlambang Bayu Aji

Herlambang Bayu Aji

Herlambang Bayu Aji is originally from Indonesia, but works and lives since 2010 in Berlin, Germany. He works with various techniques and art genres such as shadow puppets, paintings, education art, installation and graphic art. 

Herlambang Bayu Aji developed a strong interest in the traditional Indonesian shadow puppet theatre. Shadow puppet performance, also known as shadow puppetry or shadow play, is an ancient form of storytelling and entertainment, found from as far as to the West as Turkey and all over Asia. The narratives and these performances are often humorous and entertaining, and can be regarded as a kind of societal-critical cabaret.

Next to art exhibitions, the artist also uses his storytelling and performance skills on various art workshops and theater performances, as entertainment as well as education for children and adults, many times in collaboration with other artists.

Since 2016 he is working on a series of works titled Animalgination. The title is rooted in the two words “animal” and “imagination”, and as such is the output of his plays and imagination of new animals which do not exist in real life. 

The artist believes that everything is changing. The climate is changing and sooner or later forcing nature to change as well. The gobal warming threatens plants, land creatures and aquatic animals with extinction and pushes the environment to adapt those changes in many ways. Unusual attitudes of animals, awaking small plants or microorganisms in the land which have been covered by ice for thousands of years and even mutated viruses.

Animalgination provides the opportunity to create fictional forms of animals, like an elephant with a rabbit’s body and a crocodile’s tail, a flying cow with butterfly wings and a mackerel’s head, or a pig with an eel’s tail. The series symbolises, that every single person is changing during their life. These changes influence the people around that person and in turn is influenced by them as well. There are no absolute criteria to define identities, as identities are fluid and interdependent.

Animalgination is executed in linocut using oil paints on paper, painting with acrylic on canvas and an installation of paintings, papercuts, paper mâché, sounds and various natural materials.

Born:
21 May, 1982 in Solo/Surakarta, Indonesia

Education:
Master of Arts, Institute for Art in Context, University of Arts, Berlin
Bachelor of Arts, Sebelas Maret University, Surakarta 

Artworks by Herlambang Bayu Aji

Posted by in artist
28
Oct
2022
Ayu Arista Murti

Ayu Arista Murti

Ayu Arista Murti is one of the few female artists in Indonesia. Her works evolve around the theme of love and harmony among living organisms. “Nature, in all of her aspects, is beautiful”.

In her creative process to achieve an art work, the intellectual thoughts as well as natural processes are equally important. She absorbs things from different sources and let herself inspired by manga comics, but also writings and books.

Ayu Arista Murti intentionally chooses different environment and weather conditions in and around her studio to allow nature directly influence the result of her works. The elements like sun rays, wind or breeze, damp or water, dust or dirt should make an integral part of the end result. Working with many kinds of media at the same time, Ayu will sometimes work under the glaring tropical sun to allow the paint to dry quickly. She will then bring the painting to a more shadowed area to allow strongly diluted paint to spread and dry its transparent layer on the canvas. And these will later on be coloured and modified with soft pastel, charcoal, dust or dirt. And a piece of cloth, metal or wire will later be applied.

Ayu’s concerns about the genetic manipulation culminated in the Cloning Series, in the (resin) sculptures, paintings and drawings. However, her positive approach still shows the Deformed organisms in their beauty in stead.

Born:
14 December, 1979, in Surabaya, East-Java, Indonesia

Education:
2004 – Graduated from Indonesian Fine Arts Institute (ISI), Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Artworks by Ayu Arista Murti

Posted by in artist
28
Oct
2022
Afdhal

Afdhal

Afdhal experiments with non-traditional combinations of materials – sponge, silicon caulk sealant, paint and electricity cables. Many times he also uses waste materials in his artworks. Living in Yogyakarta with his young family, not far from the ever active volcano Mount Merapi, Afdhal is much concerned with the environment, especially with the relation of human to the nature. It is a delicate balance that easily tips to other side of the scale.

Afdhal makes installations, paintings and sculptures to depict this vulnerability and insignificance of human. He creates figurative sculptures without faces postured as if deep in thought. His larger paintings many times depict large animals in a surreal environment, surrounded by mysterious mathematical objects. There are fine lines leading to celestial bodies or simply spanning across the canvas. The animal figures while undoubtedly are symbols of strength, are set against tiny human figures or manly created objects. One could wonder who is more vulnerable; Nature of Human…

His art gains more recognition not only in Indonesia but also outside the country (Singapore, The Netherlands, Belgium). Afdhal recently also makes small works in wooden frames or plexi glass boxes – again using many artificial materials, as if to stress the artificiality of current human existence.

Born:
29 March, 1981 in Dumai, Riau Province, Sumatra, Indonesia

Education:
Indonesian Fine Arts Institute (ISI), Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Artworks by Afdhal

Posted by in project
28
Oct
2022
Dadang Christanto

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

Posted by in project
28
Oct
2022
Abdi Setiawan

Abdi Setiawan

Abdi Setiawan’s work is installation-based, and features half or life-size sculptures of everyday Indonesians in various social settings. A very skillful wood carver, he makes mainly wooden sculptures along with fibre glass hand-painted unique replicas or editions. His rendering of the figures are not only realistic but also infused with humorous satire.

Born:
29 Desember 1971, Pariaman, Sumatera Barat, Indonesia

Education:
ISI Yogyakarta, Jurusan Seni Kriya, 2003

Abdi Setiawan’s sculptures return to the skill of wood carving while deploying the artist’s entire imagination and perception to depict the Indonesian human figure. The work takes form as a spatial arrangement, which presents the atmosphere of a city corner such as a waiting room, bus terminal or shopping mall; a representation of a fragment of the activities of city dwellers – which wait, come and go – just wryly. The realistic rendering of the figures pokes us with satire so that we smile away our embarrassment in recognising our own behaviour reflected. Today’s life and culture are those of the city – with all its complexity of problems: population explosion, insufficient dwelling space, transportation, excessive consumption, crime and poverty. The advancement of modernity and its related humanitarian problems are becoming obvious in urban life. Direct involvement in attempt to familiarise himself with the atmospheres of certain corners of the city as well as the characters of the people there, almost always prevails in Setiawan’s process of making works. Setiawan understands the emotional experiences that have their shares in shaping the characters of the figures he intends to offer by means of his sculptures. However, in the making and finishing of his works the artist transcends the experiences and observations. He knows he needs to add his personal interpretations and judgments to the various recorded physiognomic data of his figures. He reclaims his humanitarian intention and interest to critically understand what is going on around him. And he has to deal with discovering and defining the various formal aspects in his works so as to contain all his ideas and thoughts. Abdi Setiawan carefully calculates the elements necessary to represent in his sculpture figures. The teak wood he carves roughly so as to produce unlevelled surface. The acrylic colours enforced to mix on the surface of the polyester casts of his wood sculptures are effecting detailed accessories and clothing, and through gestures and poses (arms crossed, gripping a hand phone), facial expressions, gazes and glances – all elements which add to the rich physiognomic images in his works. Tattoos, clothing patterns and brands, graphical T-shirt imprints and other attributes from popular culture make strong references to art history. Not always Setiawan feels the need to give his figures life sizes. He has already arrived at the plane where he gives prominence to rich physiognomic images rather than merely anatomic precisions. – Enin Supriyanto

Artworks by Abdi Setiawan

Posted by in project
28
Oct
2022
Yoga Mahendra

Yoga Mahendra

The works by Yoga Mahendra show the influence and the artist’s affinity with hardrock, comic strips and science-fiction.

Mahendra makes bizarre and richly imaginative paintings with grotesque figures built by other smaller figures or objects. The clusters of the figures are similar to pareidolia in the paintings by Giuseppe Arcimboldo, combined with Piranesian absurd and hellish world.

Come closer and one will soon find out. The main subject of the painting then appears to be a compound of roads, houses, ladders and bizarre objects. Street lanterns jutting out through the anatomy of the bodies. Eyes appear to be inlets of jet engines and some of the ribs are actually stairs leading to another room filled with bizarre objects. The roads are scattered with automotive machines, and little figures can be seen clinging and climbing the ladders. The houses are filled with struggling, laughing, drunken, happy and mad figures, playing music of enjoying themselves..

The particularly special artwork titled “I Stay”, inspired by his mentor Ojite Budi Sutarno, consists of different shaped, painted panels. The hybrid artwork which keeps between sculpture and painting, resembles Garuda, the state symbol of the Republic Indonesia. Garuda is a mythological figure found in Hindu and Buddhism legends and essentially seen as a protector with power and is shown either in the form of a giant bird with (partially) open wings, or a mix of form of bird with some human features. The Indonesian national airline is also called after it.

Yoga Mahendra some exhibitions and events in but also outside Indonesia, such as Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and South Korea. Currently active in a local artists group in Malang called Portal.

Born:
4 February, 1982 in Malang, Jawa Timur (East Java), Indonesia

Education:
Desain Komunikasi Visual – Universitas Negeri Malang, East Java, Indonesia

Artworks by Yoga Mahendra

Posted by in project
28
Oct
2022
Agung Kurniawan

Agung Kurniawan

Agung Kurniawan is one of the most important contemporary artists of Indonesia. He is an artist who works with a variety of media. Agung Kurniawan has developed his artistic work within the field of concrete socio-cultural activism; he believes an artist has more and larger social responsibilities than simply producing artistic work. His traditional medium is drawing, but lately he works actively with performance art and videography. Although he works with performance art, he refuses to be called as a performer, and preferred to call himself as the director of the crowds in stead. Both as a studio artist and an art activist, he takes up clear positions and his approach often leads him either down to street level or to intervening in bureaucratic structures.

Agung Kurniawan’s work is reputed to be fairly “coarse” due to themes of violence, controversial politics and taboo subjects. The artist started out with book illustrations, drawings and comics, which offered a harsh, often satirical critique of Indonesian society at that time. With his drawing Happy Victim (1996), depicting people hanging upside down while laughing cheerfully, he won a 1996 Philip Morris Art Award and gained international recognition.

His famous trellis works series started in 2006. The series was inspired by an old family photo album from 1974, consisting of a photo diary of the artist’s mother during the last days of her dying father. Agung tried to recreate the personal as well collective memories by working the panels as a kind of comic book where the trellises are the contours of the figures and the shadows cast the blurred memory.

Agung Kurniawan co-founded “Indonesian Visual Art Archive” (IVAA) and co-owner of Kedai Kebun Forum (KKF) in Yogyakarta. His works are to be found worldwide mostly in museums e.g. Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam, The Netherlands), Van Abbe Museum (Eindhoven, The Netherlands), Singapore Art Museum, as well as in private collection. His recent works include his performance in The Netherlands “Remember Day Parade and after”, during the so-called transHISTORY (Arnhem June 2016) and his video art during the Europalia Festival 2017 (Paleis voor Schone Kunsten / BOZAR / Centre for Fine Art Brussels, Belgium).

Artist’s Statement 2015 (in Bahasa Indonesia, freely translated)

– Tidak ada yang lebih berharga dari seni, kalau ada itupun pasti palsu (Nothing is more truthful than art, if there is any, then it is false)
– Cinta itu sementara, kesepian itu abadi (Love is temporary, Loneliness is forever)
– Kemiskinan adalah ibu tiri seni kontemporer (Poverty is the stepmother of contemporary art)

Born:
14 March, 1968 in Jember, Jawa Timur (East Java), Indonesia

Education:
Archeology, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia (not graduated)
Graphic Art Faculty, Indonesian Fine Arts Institute (ISI), Yogyakarta, Indonesia (not graduated)

Artworks by Agung Kurniawan

Posted by in project
28
Oct
2022
Indra Dodi

Indra Dodi

Indra Dodi makes an effort to simulate childlike drawings and joyous spontaneity on his usually large canvases with expressive, art brut, naïve style but with a refined manner. The layered colours, the notion of composition and structures, together with the detailed figures which appear to have their own characters, reveal the careful thought behind his paintings.

A graduate of the prestigious Indonesian art college in Yogyakarta, ISI (Indonesian Institute of the Arts), and a pupil of Yunizar, his works have been exhibited abroad, as far as The Netherlands and Germany. With already some solo and group exhibitions in Asia, in South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, The Philippines and of course Indonesia, Indra Dodi is one of the most successful Indonesian contemporary artists.

The smaller works are specially made for outside Indonesia and framed in beautiful (teak) wooden frame.

Born:
1 January, 1980 in Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia

Education:
Indonesian Fine Arts Institute (ISI), Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Leather Academy (Akademi Teknologi Kulit), Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Sarjana Wiata Institut Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Artworks by Indra Dodi

Posted by in artist