Jumaadi (Indonesia-Sydney)
Jumaadi (b. 1973, Sidoarjo, Jawa Timur) multidisciplinary artist work in between Yogyakarta and Sydney
moved from East Java, Indonesia to Sydney in 1997 to study at the National Art School. He graduated in 2000 with a Bachelor of Fine Art, and then again in 2008 with a Master of Fine Art. Before immigrating to Australia, from 1994 to 1995 Jumaadi was an Art Educator at the PPLH Environmental Education Centre in Seloliman, East Java (Indonesia).
Jumaadi has had 35 solo exhibitions since 1999. His survey exhibit Staging Love at Maitland Regional Art Gallery (MRAG), was on display from December 2018 to March 2019. Jumaadi’s second major solo exhibition MY LOVE IS AN ISLAND FAR AWAY opened December 2019 and features a number of commissioned artworks of varying mediums.
Jumaadi’s work is featured in numerous public collections both across Australia and internationally, namely the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Bathurst Regional Gallery, Bega Valley Regional Art Gallery, Halsey Institute South Carolina, USA, Macquarie Bank, National Art School, Sydney, National Gallery of Australia, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney.
“Asal Muasal” (2021)
Buffalo leather and acrylic
variable size
Through the artwork developed using the traditional puppet carving techniques, Jumaadi describes the epic of the journey of human beings, wherein fate is determined by the feet that continue to take steps, bodies that continue to move, migrate, and adapt, as well as the reality of the diaspora felt by many worldwide who are separated from their homelands.
In such a journey, the foothold is only temporary, similar to the cycle of rites of passage in human life where birth and death, creation and destruction, meeting and separation, luck and misfortune, comedy and tragedy, always go hand in hand. These are like the two sides of the same coin—inseparable.
