"These are the usual conditions that drive me to make artworks. What I usually find in books, real life, music and other things may stimulate and unfold my memories, feelings, which subsequently are mingled with my imagination."
– Jumaldi Alfi
Jumaldi Alfi (b. 1973, Lintau, Indonesia, based in Yogyakarta, Indonesia) explores the formal, cultural and historical dimensions of painting. With references ranging from nature and anatomical studies to Renaissance painting and childhood memories, his paintings are personal visual codes that resonate on instinctual, emotional and existential levels.
Belonging to a group of prominent Indonesian artists who turned toward formalist approaches in the 1990s, Alfi’s early works often featured gestural marks and feverish scribbles layered over abstracted, fragmented landscapes. In the 2000s, his compositions evolved to depict minimalist, whimsical arrangements of elements that evoked an introspective atmosphere. His notable Blackboard Series (2005–ongoing), realistically rendered in acrylic on canvas, look like drawings on actual blackboards. It combines painted imagery such as rocks, human figures, horses, tape and blackboard frames, against a background of quotes from cultural texts or other artists that appear like blurred or erased strokes of chalk. These paintings suggest a subversion of systems of knowledge and the potential for history to be continually rewritten.
Alfi obtained his BFA from the Indonesian Institute of the Arts, Yogyakarta in 1999. Notable exhibitions include At the Still Point (2016), Langgeng Art Foundation, Yogyakarta; 70 Years Republic of Indonesia (2015), National Gallery of Indonesia, Jakarta; Mooi Indie – Beautiful Indies (2014), Gordon & Susan Samstag Museum of Art, Adelaide; The Collectors Show (2013), Singapore Art Museum; The Islands of the Day Before (2013), Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei; The Window of Jendela (2012), OHD Museum, Magelang; Bayang (2011), the National Gallery of Indonesia, Jakarta; Jendela - A Play of the Ordinary (2009), NUS Museum, Singapore; and Common Grounds (2007), the National Gallery of Indonesia, Jakarta. The artist has also participated in major international festivals including the 6th Prague Biennale (2013); and Jogja Jamming (2009), 10th Jogja Biennale, Yogyakarta.
Alfi had his residency at the STPI Workshop in 2010, resulting in the exhibition Melting Memories (2011).