Jumaldi Alfi
(b. 1973 in Lintau, West Sumatra, Indonesia)

Alfi studied painting in Yogyakarta at the Indonesia Institute of the Arts (Institut Seni Indonesia). In the mid-1990s he formed the Jendela Art Group together with the Yogyakarta-based painters Handiwirman Saputra, Yusra Martunus, Rudi Mantofani, Yunizar and M. Irfan. In contrast to the direct socio-political critique in the works of artists such as Dadang Christanto, the Jendela group’s focus was on aesthetic exploration within a more formalist and personal territory.

For Alfi this meant the freedom to explore and incorporate references from every dimension of his existence: whether his own childhood memories, Sumatran culture, his affinity for German Expressionism and Renaissance art, or the music of Pink Floyd. Symbolic motifs drawn from these dimensions, such as skulls, cacti, rocks and scribbled words appear frequently in Alfi’s oeuvre. In his recent works, such as the Achilles series and the Blackboard series of paintings Alfi adopts an almost photorealist style, creating layered references of history, questioning what is remembered and what is forgotten, and how much the future direction is dictated by the past. In his monumental cast sculpture Monument (2012), Alfi points to the possibility of hope in the form of a cactus growing out of a barren rock.

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The Artworks

photo ©Sin Sin Man