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
