Christine Ay Tjoe b. 1973
"Too much knowledge is excessive. People need to learn to depart from relying on external knowledge and listen to their bodies instead."
— Christine Ay Tjoe
Artist Biography
Christine Ay Tjoe (1973, born and based in Bandung, Indonesia) creates drawings, prints, paintings and installations rooted in the emotional and psychological dimensions of the human condition. Addressing themes such as philosophy, spirituality and the relationship between humankind and nature, her works are an abstract interplay of colour, form and gestural movement guided by her own inner state.
Formally trained as a graphic artist, Ay Tjoe developed her expertise in the intaglio printing technique of drypoint in the late 1990s, before working with oil bars on canvas in the 2000s. This shift enabled more expressive mark-making through bold slashes and strokes of colour, as well as spontaneous interventions with her own hands. In works such as Horizontal Yoyo (2008) and Small Flies and Other Wings (2013), clusters of organic shapes and animated strokes occasionally evoke figurative forms such as plants, living creatures and the human body, set within a sensitive, balanced use of negative and positive space that invites introspection.
Ay Tjoe obtained her BA in Graphic Art from the Bandung Institute of Technology in 1997. Her works are held in major collections including the Asia Society, New York; M+, Hong Kong; Museum MACAN, Jakarta; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane; Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai; Singapore Art Museum; National Gallery Singapore; and Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar.
Notable exhibitions include Spirituality and Allegory (2018), 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa; Prudential Eye Award (2015), ArtScience Museum, Singapore; Future Pass (2012), National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung; Future Pass 2.0 (2012), Wereldmuseum Rotterdam; Future Pass – From Asia to the World (2011), (Collateral Event of the 54th Venice Biennale) Fondazione Claudio Buziol, Venice; Vision & Resonance (2005), Asian Civilizations Museum, Singapore; Taboo and Transgression in Contemporary Indonesian Art (2005), Johnson Museum, Cornell University, New York; and Equatorial Heat (2004), Shanghai Museum. The artist has also participated in major international festivals including We Do Not Dream Alone (2021), 1st Asia Society Triennial, New York; Nature Born (2006), Langgeng Contemporary Art Festival, Magelang; Beppu Asia Biennale of Contemporary Art (2005); 1st Beijing Biennale (2003); and 17 AIAE (2002), 17th Asian International Art Exhibition, Daejeon.
Ay Tjoe had her residency at the STPI Workshop in 2008, resulting in the exhibition Eating Excess (2009).