From art history to housing problems: Indonesia matters at Brisbane’s APT9

13 Mar 2019

“It is hard to overlook Zico’s works. His paintings, which feature bright pallets, are the first to see on the third floor of Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA). One of them was even chosen as the cover of the exhibit’s catalog.

Most Indonesian visitors may find his painting, Negotiation of Understanding, familiar and alien at the same time — it shows a woman (Zico’s wife) taking a picture of a mooi indie painting at a gallery.

APT9 curator Tarun Nagesh said the Bandung-based artist is trying to paint the history of Indonesian art into his works, embedding motifs of seminal artists from Raden Saleh and Sindudarsono Sudjojono to the “pioneering figures of the contemporary movement” such as FX Harsono and Heri Dono.

“In his artworks, he brings together lots of different references to Indonesian art history and world art history and draws on his personal story as well and thinks about himself and paints his studios into his paintings as well,” Nagesh told a group of Indonesian journalists during a visit to the GOMA.”

The Jakarta Post reviews Indonesian artists, including Zico Albaiquni at the 9th Asia Pacific Triennial, on view at QAGOMA until 28 April 2019.

Image: When It Shook, The Earth Stood Still (After Pirous), 2018, oil on canvas, 200 x 120 cm. Courtesy of the artist, Yavuz Gallery and QAGOMA