Agus Suwage
oil on galvanized zinc, small sculptures, and found objects
360 1/4 x 177 in. (915 x 450 cm)
Zinc, acrylic, iron and LED lightbox
53 x 47 x 63 in (135 x 120 x 160 cm)
Oil on zinc panel with copper and zinc sculpture
Painting: 47 x 36 in (119.5 x 91.5 cm); Guitar sculpture: 43 1/4 x 16 x 5 in (110 x 41 x 12 cm)
oil on zinc panel with graphite and polyester skeleton
27 1/2 x 36 in. (70 x 91.5 cm)
Lithography, acrylic, two layers of handcut, pigment stained and stencil washed STPI handmade paper
51 x 41 x .2 in (128.3 x 102.9 x .6 cm)
Lithography, embossing and pigment stained STPI handmade paper
40 x 51 in (101.6 x 128.3 cm)
Lithography, etching, pigment stained and stencil washed STPI handmade paper assembled with lithography on Fabriano paper
50 x 40 x .75 in (127 x 101.6 x 1.9 cm)
Stainless steel, gold plated brass, and rice
49 x 30 x 20 in (124 x 77 52 cm) (3rd edition)
Steel bars and six pieces lifesize sculptures, polyester resin, polyurethane, acrylic paint, and iron
Dimensions Variable
Polyester resin, stainless steel, aluminum, and acrylic paint
71 x 45 x 68 in (180 x 115 x 172 cm)
Life-size sculptures, mixed media aluminum, silver plated, resin and oil paint
Dimensions Variable
Acrylic, cigarette butts, aluminum
20 x 47 x 6 in (52 x 119 x 16 cm)
Acrylic and digital print on Hahnemühle canvas
74 x 37 in (187 x 93 cm) (5 pieces)
Oil on linen
79 x 79 in (200 x 200 cm)
Oil on canvas
59 x 47 in (150 x 120 cm) (27 pieces)
Iron, wood, lontar leaf, handmade flowers, and ceramics
dimensions Variable
Iron, wood, lontar leaf, handmade flowers, and ceramics
Dimensions Variable
Modified pedicab, digital print on paper, and stone
Dimensions Variable
Aluminum, stainless steel, resin, cigarette butts, and blank discs
8 x 15 x 15 in (21 x 37 x 37 cm)
Oil on canvas
59 x 57 in (150 x 145 cm)
Modified pedicab, cigarette butts, and watercolor on paper
30 x 22 in (75 x 55 cm) (27 pieces)
Oil on Canvas
59 x 57 in (150 x 145 cm)
Stainless steel, plastic, digital print
64 x 35 x 24 in (162.5 x 90 x 62 cm)
Painted brass, oil on canvas, wood, vinyl
13 x 7 x 6 in (33 x 17 x 15 cm) (4 pieces)
Chrome, aluminum, cigarette butts
13 x 7 x 7 in (33 x 17 x 18 cm)
Chrome, aluminum, wood, vinyl, magnetic chess
13 x 7 x 6 in (33 x 17 x 15 cm)
Oil on canvas
59 x 57 in (150 x 145 cm)
Oil, acrylic, and goat's leather mounted on board
24 in (60 cm) diameter (24 pieces)
Agus Suwage is one of the giants of Indonesian contemporary art and is among the most sought after contemporary artists from Southeast Asia. Over the past few decades, his works have been shown in a number of international biennials, such as the Asia Pacific Triennial in Brisbane, Australia (1996), the Gwangju Biennial (2000), and the Singapore Biennial (2006). He has been featured in almost 150 museum and gallery exhibitions around the world, and his works are included in most comprehensive collections of Southeast Asian contemporary art. In 2009, the Jogja National Museum in Indonesia devoted all three floors of its building to a major retrospective of Suwage’s works of the past 25 years, including paintings, sculptures, and installations. A 670-page monograph of his work, Still Crazy After All These Years, was recently published.
The past year has garnered much international attention for Suwage, with eager anticipation of his first US solo exhibition, The End Is Just Beginning Is the End, which took place at Tyler Rollins Fine Art from March 3 – April 23, 2011. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal mentioned the intense interest in Southeast Asian art in 2010, going on to report that “among the most coveted names was Agus Suwage, who has been busy in his Jogyakarta studio preparing for his first New York show, due to open in March at Tyler Rollins Fine Art, one of the city’s top venues and the only major gallery in New York featuring top contemporary Southeast Asian works.” Despite his international reputation, Suwage’s work has so far been little seen in the US, and The End Is Just Beginning Is the End marked an important opportunity for American audiences to become familiar with his art.
Also in 2011, Suwage participated in numerous group exhibitions in Asia and Europe: Negotiating Home, History, and Nation: Two Decades of Contemporary Art in Southeast Asia at the Singapore Art Museum, Beyond the East at the Macro Museum in Rome, Beyond the Self at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra, Asia: Looking South in Berlin, Germany; and Ekspansi: Contemporary Sculptures at the National Gallery in Jakarta.
Suwage has long been fascinated with the unique properties of unusual materials, and for his New York exhibition he created an entirely new body of work using sheets of zinc. He makes use of the dappled, monochromatic surface of the metal panels, manipulating them to create contrasting areas of dark, rough patina, the whole suggesting at times a sandy beach or a rocky outcropping. On this backdrop, he paints enigmatic scenes that make reference to some familiar motifs of his work, such as the human skeleton and his own self-portrait. Images of the artist emerge from the raw metallic surfaces, transforming into skeletons that slowly fall apart and fade into the natural environment. For Suwage, these works are a meditation on birth, life, death, and nature, embodying his search for meaning that transcends dogma and ideology. Like a vein of rock that has been split open to reveal fossils of strange creatures, these works give us an insight into the artist’s own inner world of dreams that hover between past and future, life and death.
EXHIBITION CATALOGUE ESSAY
Please click here to view the catalogue essay for Suwage’s The End Is Just Beginning Is the End.
