Artist: Soegiono (Indonesia)

Soegiono’s paintings, in a glance, show a classic depiction of the human picture. Although created in photographic realism with perfect attention to details, with a well developed colour composition crafted from many layers, his paintings are not portraits merely chasing the precision of form. The human figures and the surrounding scenery is no longer mere reality, but also a metaphor. His clear, succinct, easy on the eye prose also hides a poem. It hides a deep meaning unseen by the naked eye, a meaning that must be captured by the heart.

Artist: Dadi Setiyadi (Indonesia)

Dadi’s art revolve around the concept of the mix cultural influences, playing with the notions of the east and west, modern and traditional, universal and contextual as well as global and local. He has created the most amazing and captivating pieces through playing with famous painting, departing from traditions and old legends. To him, these are the ‘traditions’ he has to further develop in order to survive and keep going.

He creatively introduces changes to meanings, enabling new metaphors to develop. Dadi believes that artworks are a medium that contain or carry cultural values, the live on discussion, experimentation, curiosity, alternative thinking and comparing viewpoints, all of which highly affected by frankness, openness and sincerity.

For him, it is not too important about cultural origins, which are not what determine creativity; instead, the real point is how much we have been able to assimilate the learning points from our sources.

About Dadi:

Born 1977 in Tasikmalaya, West Java, Dadi Setiyadi graduated from Indonesia Institute of Art in 2004, working with paintings, sculptures and installation works. With particular interests in fantasy, science fiction and art culture, Dedi studied the symbols of the Archipelago - Garuda from Java, Lembuswana from Borneo, La Galigo from Sulawesi - through a project on Indonesian folklore called Kisah Nuisantara. This brought him to discover a connection to a fantastical and mythical world, the influences creating a particular syncretism in his art. He combines traditional local elements inspired from the environment, full of living traditions, with modern and contemporary subjects.

Artist: Gabby Tiongson (Philippines)

Gabby Tiongson creates beautifully detailed artworks with the most common material, a sharpie marker. Using sure and strong black lines, his precision cuts through paper giving life to his ideas and creations. Design ideas are grafted together using different body parts – human, animal and imagination. Through his background in medicine, he gained confidence to toy around with nature, example, replacing a pig’s ear with a pair of human hands.

Many of his drawings features limbs in the most unusual places, adorned with belly buttons, a reference perhaps to omphalokepsis, navel-gazing, and self-contemplation. Indigenous patterns are used throughout his drawings; the stylized tagalog diagonals add a subtle Filipino essence to what seems, at the first glance, a western sensibility.

His cartoonish style is a culmination of all his influences and obsessions, from animated television shows to fantasy genre computer games (World of Warcraft; Todd McFarlane’s Spawn) and legendary creatures such as the chupacabra.

“Invention,” Mary Shelley writes in the introduction of Frankenstein, “does not consist in creating out of void, but out of chaos.” It is into this creative chaos, this plethora of limbs, that Tiongson invites us. Like Shelley’s protagonist, he is set to “pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation.”

Artist: Ida Bagus Indra (Indonesia)

Ida Bagus Indra is a young, self-taught, dynamic Balinese artist whose work is striking and emotional. His aesthetic and spiritual experiences give him a strong grip on the essence of movement, energy and color that infuse the spontaneity of his canvases. Ida Bagus Indra's immense creative spirit show through in his unique, innovative approach to Balinese culture, including traditional and sacred dance, priests and Balinese ceremonies bound to the Hindu faith and philosophy of life. He combines the sacred with familiar aspects of everyday life in revealing and inspired ways, including images of children, women and family that touch the heart of every human being.

Ida Bagus Indra's work is a reflection of his deep and penetrating observation, artistic journeys, and ever-changing understanding of himself as a part of society, his environment, and also his spiritual relation to his Creator and his ancestors.

Born in Denpasar on May 9, 1974 into a family with a long artistic tradition, including his father who is acknowledged as a leading cartoonist of his generation, IBI found his way in the Balinese art world with great enthusiasm.

Ida Bagus Indra launched his first exhibition in 1996 and has not looked back. Ida Bagus Indra is set to become a significant and classic artist of the 21 st century. His canvases are bold, direct. Like his young nation, built on ancient cultures, IBI unites tradition with ultra-modern style. The sweep and energy of his strokes erupts from deep within to illuminate precious moments common to us all, with grace, humor, and compassion