Baik Art Residency and Exhibition

The Van Every/Smith Galleries are delighted to announce the Baik Art Residency and Exhibition. Mella Jaarsma, Aliansyah Caniago, and Restu Ratnaningtyas will join us from Indonesia beginning January 17, 2017 for a three-week residency. Throughout the residency, the public will have the opportunity to experience the artists’ creative process as they create new works for their exhibition, opening on February 9, 2017. The exhibition reception will occur on February 9 from 7 – 8:30pm, with a gallery talk at 7pm. The artwork created during the artists’ residency will remain on view in the Van Every Gallery until March 3, 2017.

Mella Jaarsma was born and raised in the Netherlands. She studied art at Minerva Academy, Groningen, before moving abroad in 1984 to study art at the Art Institute of Jakarta (IKJ) and Indonesia Institute of the Arts (ISI). Her work has been widely exhibited internationally and can be found in major public collections including Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia and the Singapore Art Museum. In 1988, Jaarsma and her partner Nindityo Adipurnomo, founded Cemeti Gallery (now Cemeti Art House), a space in Yogyakarta dedicated to residencies, projects, and exhibitions. Jaarsma’s sculptural constructions, “costumes” that are often worn/performed, often speak to social and political concerns, such as racism, discrimination, and other forms of oppression. Her works map memory, recording moments of feeling significant, unimportant, or empty.

Aliansyah Caniago (Alin) was born in 1987 in Tangerang, Indonesia. He studied painting at BandungInstitute of Technology Faculty Art and Design and graduated in 2011. He has participated in many performance art workshops including in Germany, Poland, SIgnapore, Japan, and Thailand. He is now one of the disciples of Melati Suryodarmo in his performance art practice in Solo, Indonesia. Caniago’s performance art is centered around activism within the public space. His interventions and site specific works are aimed at entering areas of conflict through art in an effort to incite change, for example, to repair the damaged environment. Caniago’s work has been widely exhibited, and he is one of the founders of an artist collective space in Bandung, Ruang Gerilya. Caniago is the recipient of many awards and honors including the 4th Bazaar Art Award Jakarta 2011, Indonesia, Top Honor Indonesian Art Award in Jakarta 2015, Indonesia and The Winner of Bandung Contemporary Art Award 2015, Bandung, Indonesia.

Restu Ratnaningtyas was born in Tangerang in 1981. She studied at the Department of Art Education, the Faculty of Art at UNJ (Jakarta State University). She works in a variety of media including video art, watercolor, painting, and installation. Her work centers around daily life, focusing on small things that help balance our lives. Ratnaningtyas’ works has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions internationally, including in Indonesia, Korea, Thailand, Turkey, Australia, and Myanmar. She has completed a residency at Cemeti Art Center in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

Accompanying the residency, the Galleries will present a solo exhibition featuring mixed media works by Heri Dono in the Smith Gallery, on view from February 9 through March 3, 2017. Heri Dono was born in Jakarta in 1960. He studied at the Indonesian Art Institute in Yogyakarta, where he now lives and works. Dono’s work encompasses painting, sculpture, and installation that punctuates traditional Indonesian folk imagery with cars, screens, and political cartoons. He exhibits his work internationally; recent solo exhibitions were on view at Museé d’art contemporain de Lyon, Lyon, France; Tyler Rollins Fine Art, New York, New York; and New Museum, Jakarta, Indonesia. His work belongs in several public collections including the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia; Singapore Art Museum, Singapore; and Museum der Kulturen, Basel, Switzerland, among many others.

The exhibition and related programming are made possible through the support of Susan Baik and Prem Manjooran ’92.