E-CATALOG FRAGMENTS OF SUBCONSIOUS MEMORY

BIOGRAPHY

        

KETUT TEJA ASTAWA

                                                   

Teja Astawa (1971) is a Balinese Artist who lives and works in Sanur, Bali. Teja graduated from the Indonesian College of Fine Arts (STSI) in Denpasar in 1990. Astawa works in thematic series that draw his  inspiration from subjects that range from the animals figure, to the wayang stories that nurtured his childhood. His style is characteristically naive with a palette of vivid colours, a childlike manner of rendering figures in flat and simplified stylization, and a delightfully mischievous imagination.

Drawing from episodes, morality tales and characters from Hindu epics and Balinese equivalent of Aesop fables, Astawa brings to these stories that are the staple of Balinese art and image making his personalized interpretations replete with comic touches. Contemporary popular idioms weave through Astawa wayang paintings. Even so, in Astawa treatment of wayang characters there remains a faithfulness to basic wayang iconography that enables identification of the characters. Naivety as a stylistic device in the history of Balinese art is first associated with the Young Artists Style which emerged in the late 1960s in the Penestanan area near Ubud. Astawa naivety is to be distinguished from the latter. Among young contemporary Balinese artists, there are not a few who have developed a kind of naive treatment. Astawa comic oeuvre is by distinction more childlike and innocent, seemingly to enjoy an internal curiosity and humour about the mundane things immediately surrounding him.

Solo exhibition

2013

TW(IN)SIDE, at Kendra Gallery, Seminyak, Bali, Indonesia

2012

A Glimpse Back Into The Past: Early Paintings of Ketut Teja Astawa. Art Temporary Space, Plaza Senayan, Jakarta, Indonesia

2011

Fragments  of   Subconscious  Memory, Tonyraka Art Gallery, Ubud, Indonesia

2009

Batman Forever, Sunjin Gallery, Singapore

2008

Works Of Ketut Teja Astawa, Gallery Roemah Roepa, Jakarta, Indonesia

Group exhibitions

2014

Bali: Return Economy, Fremantle Art Centre, Perth, Australia

Low Stream, Indonesia-Korea Contemporary Art Exhibition, at Jeju Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea

2013

Two Island, Indonesia-Korea Contemporary Art Exhibition, Galeri Nasional, Jakarta

Imajining Indonesia, Tribute to S. Sudjojono, Tonyraka Art Gallery, Ubud

Bali Art Fair, Bali Art Society, Tonyraka Art Gallery, Ubud

2012

Painting@Drawings, Tony Raka Art Gallery, Bali, Indonesia

2011

Fragments of Subconscious Memory, Tonyraka Gallery, Ubud, Indonesia

Bali Making Choice", Mon Décor Gallery at National Gallery, Jakarta, Indonesia

Scope Basel, at Basel, Switzerland

2010

Return to the Abstraction, Tonyraka Gallery, Ubud, Indonesia

Post Modern Rambling, Ganesha Gallery Four Season, Jimbaran, Indonesia

Corner Kick, Tanah Tho Gallery, Ubud, Indonesia

Bazaar Art in Jakarta, Indonesia

2009

Balinese Kunst In Geur En Kleur, Nederlands Parfumflessen Museum, the Netherlands

Batman Forever, Sunjin Gallery, Singapore

2008

Pameran Perupa Bali" at Montiq Gallery, Jakarta, Indonesia

11th Beijing International Art Exposition" at Beijing

Bali Art Now, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

2007

Juxtapose, Gallery Ellcana, Jakarta, Indonesia

2006

Ganesha Gallery Four Season, Jimbaran, Bali, Indonesia

2005

Bali to Bali, Sun Jin Gallery, Singapore

Art As Self Expresion,  Santrian Art Gallery

2004

Mosaik Himpunan Pelukis Sanur,Santrian Gallery, Sanur , Indonesia

Drawing New Harmony II,  Rare Angon Gallery, Sanur,Indonesia

10 Artist Introduce Themselves, 10 Fine Art Sanur, Bali, Indonesia

Auction, Swissotel the Stamford, Singapore

The Journey Himpunan Pelukis Sanur, Museum Puri Lukisan, Ubud, Indonesia

2003

TAIBlack, Dies Natalis STSI XXXVI at STSI Denpasar, Indonesia

BIG Perupa Dalam 16, Art Center Denpasar & Santrian Gallery Sanur, Indonesia

NEW Harmony,  Rare Angon Gallery, Sanur , Indonesia

Pesta Kesenian Bali XXV, Art Center, Denpasar, Indonesia

2002

 Exhibition Himpunan Pelukis Sanur Soft Opening Santrian Gallery at Santrian Gallery, Sanur, Indonesia

Perupa Dalam 16" at Gabrig Art Gallery, Sanur, Indonesia

Paradise Youth Activity For Humanity Sangga Bhuana, RRI Denpasar, Indonesia

2001

Taksu Bali, Gallery 678, South Jakarta, Indonesia

Seni Rupa Bali Kontemporer,  Bentara Budaya, Jakarta, Indonesia

What II, Gallery Sembilan, Ubud, Bali, Indonesia

Himpunan Pelukis Sanur Exhibition,  Balairung Dewi Sri Exhibition Hall Garuda Wisnu Kencana, Jimbaran, Indonesia

2000

Refleksi Seni II, Darga Gallery, Sanur, Indonesia

1996

Exhibition at Canberra Sidney Australia

Refleksi Seni '98,  Darga Gallery, Sanur, Indonesia

1995

Kelompok Sebelas, Art Center, Denpasar , Indonesia

Arnanda Tour, Kuta, Indonesia

1994

Kelompok Sebelas" at Darga Gallery, Sanur

1993

Museum Seni Lukis Klasik Nyoman Gunarsa, Klungkung

HUT II Kamasra Exhibition, STSI Denpasar, Indonesia

1992

Museum Sidik Jari, Denpasar , Indonesia

Seni Masa Kini, STSI Denpasar , Indonesia

1991

Exhibition at Art Center, Denpasar , Indonesia

Peksiminas, STSI Denpasar, Indonesia

Dies Natalis STSI Denpasar, STSI, Denpasar , Indonesia

Kelompok Lanjalan, Ubud, Indonesia

Museum Ratna Warta, Ubud , Indonesia                                                

Award

2001

                Finalist Philip Morris Art Award Indonesia

Museum Collection

Der Weltkulturen Am Schamainkai, Frankfurt, Germany

Jeju and Amsterdam

New ARTworks at Teja's Studio

Mengintip, Acrylic on canvas, 70 x 50 cm, 2013

Mengintip, Acrylic on canvas, 70 x 50 cm, 2013

Cerita Burung dan Kepiting
Acrylic on canvas, 74 x 62 cm, 2013

Red Pig, Acrylic on canvas, 50 x 70 cm, 2013

Kuda Gunung, Acrylic on canvas, 50 x 70 cm, 2013

Red Pig #2, Acyrlic on canvas, 48 x 57 cm, 2013

Pig Problems, Acrylic on canvas, 50 x 70 cm, 2013

Kuda Raja, Acrylic on canvas 50 x 70 cm, 2013

Monkeys in The Beach, Acrylic on canvas, 50 x 70 cm, 2013

Save The Whaley, Acrylic on canvas, 120 x 150 cm, 2013

Ngelawang Problems, Acrylic on canvas, 125 x 260 cm, 2014

War Problems, Acrylic on canvas, 250 x 250 cm, 2014

Dispute Over Ice Cream, Acrylic on Canvas, 240 x 240 cm, 2013

RSVP

LOWSTREAM at JEJU MUSEUM of CONTEMPORARY ART KOREA (2014)

LOWSTREAM is an exhibition that collaborates Indonesian and Korean Artist. Lucky me, I was selected to participate in this exhibition and also got a change to visit Korea. 

i took this picture with my gadget, and this was before the opening night.

Tw(in)side (2013)

Ketut Teja Astawa in conjuction with Mokoh

March 29 - April 29, 2013

Kendra Gallery

This exhibition represents two Balinese painters from different generations who apply similar techniques of Balinese traditional painting as the basis of their creative development. Teja, young painter from Sanur has being developing is own distinctive style, which is underlain by characteristics from the Balinese Wayang Style, since the 1990’s. On the other hand we have the late, lamented Dewa Putu Mokoh who learned the Pengosekan style of painting at a young age; thence he was able to become independent of the mainstream and then developed his own stylistic and distinctive works. There has been no close personal relationship between Teja and Dewa Putu Mokoh. However, the identical creative exploration by both of them, who stand for two different generations, can be perceived as different customs within the contemporary art development of Indonesia. Their existence indicates that the style of traditional Balinese line painting , is alive and well in the development of contemporary art. That is that the development of contemporary art via its esthetic exploration that still reveals the theme line of the ancient classical Balinese Wayang Style. Teja has employed his mastery in transforming caricatural forms as the exploration principle within his works. Actually, puppets are creations with distorted forms and he recreates their basic structures which have been standard. He has restructured them to be more unique, exposing Teja Astawa’s distinctive form of exploration. In short, he has accomplished to domesticate puppets from their collective habitat, into his own personal style and language. Teja’s openness to a variety of interpretations, pretensions and meanings reflects his authenticity to dissimilar matters, even the spontaneous ones. An idea coming to his mind may be compositionally adjusted so that it does not interrupt, or is intentionally meant to be an aesthetic distraction that evokes the viewers attention. The writer believes that it is Teja’s incredible imagination that leads his creativity. When a play, for example, can be sensed philosophically, Teja’s inclination for diverse possibilities may not plainly present the aesthetic phenomena. Furthermore, a value is perceived in the process he is in. The ability to perform continuous explorations is a reflection of an artist’s creative power. Dewa Putu Mokoh, a simple man, was born in 1934 in Pengosekan, Ubud and painted with a distinctive naïve, child like style. He was a brave artist who depicted compositions, uncommon with the Ubud standard, through his small narratives of daily life. All of those experiences can be seen on some of his artworks. Sometimes he just displayed a fabric is hanging on his painting, it might be a common thing but when the writer looked deeply on the detail, it shows the compositional aspect consciousness of Mokoh. The tendency of Balinese traditional art is to depict the paintings narrative spread throughout all parts of the composition and filling the whole of the canvas. However Mokoh exceeded that convention by displaying his uncomplicated narratives using only one focal point, positioned on edge, and then the rest of the composition was left empty. His compositions reveal his intense wish to explore the visual aspects, which he was able to achieve by allowing his creativity to flow intuitively.

artworks from the exhibition tw(in)side