Yavuz Fine Art is pleased to present a major exhibition by Iwan Effendi that traces back in time to depict real-life stories that happened during a coup in Indonesia 46 years ago. This is Effendi’s first solo exhibition in Singapore and will feature a series of new paintings and sculptures.
The 1965 uprising led to a violent army-led anti-communist purge in which more than half a million people were killed. The purge was a pivotal event in the transition to the “New Order”; the Indonesian Communist Party was eliminated as a political force, and the upheavals led to the downfall of president Sukarno, and to the commencement of Suharto’s thirty-year presidency. Effendi captures this dark chapter in Indonesia’s history through surrealistic visual language. He weaves the stories that he wants to share into his complex, multi-layered compositions evoking a fantasy world that draws the audience into the narration behind each image. Effendi delicately addresses individual stories of loss and hope and uses strong visual metaphors for life and death.
Effendi was born in 1979 in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. He lives and works in Yogyakarta and is one of the most highly acclaimed contemporary artists from Indonesia, who has garnered international attention in recent years. In 2009/2010, Effendi participated in the Biennale Jogja X, and held a six month long artist residency at the Asian Culture Council in New York, USA where he researched about puppetry, visual and performance arts. Effendi has had exhibitions in Mexico, USA, Indonesia and Malaysia. He is also the artistic director of Papermoon Puppet Theatre, which recently held an exhibition titled Circus of Life at the Esplanade in Singapore.