Art

Contemporary art today appears obsessed with bigger is better. Academic training encourages emerging artists to express themselves in large format painting and sculptural compositions.  Colour, form and movement infatuates, mesmerises, fascinates and hypnotises our consciousness. Artists are well aware of the power of aesthetic allure, however it also can gloss over, pretend, promise and lie.

Mount Penanggungan, in Mojokerto, East Java, is the keeper of ancient secrets. It lies forty kilometres southwest of Surabaya. It has been recognised as the sacred mountain Pawitra since the 10thcentury, and the spiritual heartland of the 13th-16th-century Majapahit empire. Indonesia’s last Indianized maritime kingdom, based in East Java, the empire encompassed almost the entire

Art journal RUANG// is reframing everyday experiences through artist perspectives. What happens when nickel is pulled from the earth until landscapes collapse, or when colonial portraits continue to shape identity long after the empire has gone? What stories do forests tell when cameras catch the flicker of animals moving through the night? These are questions

The dramatic rise of women artists in Indonesia over the past two decades has enabled the recalibration of national art and cultural narratives. Significant discourse has heightened public awareness and recognition of the valuable roles women have played, and continue to play, in shaping the modern Indonesian identity and forging exciting future prospects for emerging

Few objects capture Indonesia’s rich heritage like the keris. Distinctive to Java and Bali, this dagger is more than a weapon — it is a ceremonial cultural symbol. Keris are used in many different respects: as weapons, as talismans with magical powers, as sanctified heirlooms, as equipment for court soldiers, as an accessory for ceremonial

If you have been looking for a way to experience the city’s creative pulse without the stiff atmosphere of a traditional gallery, Art Jakarta Gardens 2026 is exactly where you need to be. Now entering its fifth edition, this event has transformed Hutan Kota by Plataran into a sprawling, open-air gallery, running from May 5

Light is an omnipresent magician, illuminating our visual perceptions and revealing a wonderful array of physical forms, textures, and colours. Reflection is light’s dynamic counterpart, changing direction, bouncing, and refracting off surfaces, creating a myriad of abstract configurations. Light, reflection, and movement are exciting media in the hands of Bali-based Italian artist Alessio Ceruti, who

ASHTA District 8 reimagines the lifecycle of discarded objects through ARTCYCLE: EARTHFORM. Running from April 20 to May 17, 2026, at the Melting Pot, this Earth Month initiative creates a sophisticated dialogue between industrial design, fine art, and environmental advocacy. The curated exploration centers on “meaningful evolution,” where the focus shifts from consumption to the

This April, 25hours Hotel Jakarta The Oddbird flips the script on how art is shown. Turning its 10th floor into a corridor of galleries, the hotel debuts Room Art Fair 2026, timed with World Art Day. For four days, from 16–19 April, hotel rooms shed their everyday function, becoming portals into different artistic worlds. Each

The paintings displayed at the HOARSE HORSE exhibition by Berlin-based artist Ida Lawrence do not behave like paintings. They hang, slack-backed and unstretched, as if they have shrugged off the polite posture of the gallery wall. Some are tethered with straps and rope; others carry hardware in the form of collars, leashes, and fastenings. The

When entering Olafur Eliasson: Your curious journey at Museum MACAN, your vision tilts, the colour thickens, and the world outside is muted. They say that our body adjusts before our mind does, an adjustment period one can really feel when immersed in the artist’s installations. There are rooms shaped by mist, reflections, shadows, and slow-moving