Indonesian Art: Pleasures of Chaos

Italian gallerist Primo Marella is aided in this exploration of Indonesia’s rising contemporary art scene by the expertise of renowned Indonesian art critic and expert Jim Supangkat. Indonesian Art exhibits the work of ten contemporary Indonesian artists: Agus Suwage, FX Harsono, Gede Mahendra Yasa, Rudi Mantofani, Ichwan Noor, Yulie Praytno, Haris Purnomo, Handiwirman Saputra, Wayan Suja and Entang Wiharso.

From Suwage’s paintings and sculptures surrounding death to Mantofani’s transformations of everyday objects, and from Noor’s life-sized sculptures of hybrid human and technological forms to Purnomo’s photorealistic portraits of tattooed people, the book explores each artist’s perspective of contemporary Indonesian society. The works are placed into the context of the globalised world and all the chaotic possibilities it presents, revealing, according to Supangkat, ‘that the condition of disorder we have today in modern life is not a negative symptom’.