- Name: I Nyoman Nuarta
- Location/Ethnicity: Bali, Indonesia
- Archive Type: People
- Life: 19510-…
- Available File(s): Photo(s)
- Keywords: Material culture, sculpture, industrialization, labor, nationalism, Bali, Bandung, Indonesia, class critique.
- Link: –
Translation of his profile description at NuArt Exhibition:
Born in Tabanan, Bali, in 1951, Nyoman Nuarta completed his education at the Bandung Institute of Technology in 1979. At the end of his academic studies, Nyoman Nuarta won the competition for the Statue of the Proclaimer of Independence of the Republic of Indonesia. He was one of the members of the Indonesian New Art Movement (Gerakan Seni Rupa Baru; GSRB) in the mid-to-late 1970s. In his artistic career, Nyoman Nuarta has been involved in 57 national and international exhibitions consisting of 8 solo exhibitions and 49 joint exhibitions from 1977-2022.
His hundreds of works include monumental sculptures such as Arjuna Wijaya located in Central Jakarta, Jalesveva Jayamahe in Surabaya, and the architectural sculpture masterpiece Garuda Wisnu Kencana in Bali. Nyoman Nuarta’s various awards include Ganesha Widya Jasa Adiutama (2009 and 2018), Satyalancana Kebudayaan (2014), the honorary title of Padma Shri from the Government of India (2018), Habibie Prize 2021, Doktor Honoris Causa from Bandung Institute of Technology (2021), and Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres (Knight of Arts and Letters) by the French government (2021).
Editorial:
Nyoman Nuarta showcases visual and material artist that attends to the realm of everydayness, through which he exposes capitalism, nationalism, industrialism, and tourism–all in a neutral or perhaps ambiguous sense. Since the 1970s, with Jim Supangkat, FX Harsono, Dede Eri Supria, S. Prinka, Wagiono Sunarto, Bachtiar Zailoel, and other prominent members of GSRB, Nyoman Nuarta was dissatisfied with the lack of social and political consciousness in arts as well as the arrogance of their relationship with the state. Ironically, today, Nyoman Nuarta is very proud of his involvement in the state projects, even if the currently elected president was allegedly part of the 1998 riots, that Nyoman once critiqued in his giant sculpture, Mimpi Buruk (Nightmare).
Photo(s)
Source(s)
- Anggun Nindita, “I Nyoman Nuarta: The Maestro Behind the Magnificence of Istana Garuda IKN,” Bandung Institute of Technology, August 1, 2024, https://itb.ac.id/news/i-nyoman-nuarta-the-maestro-behind-the-magnificence-of-istana-garuda-ikn/61070.
- Christine Clark, “Gerakan Seni Rupa Baru,” in Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism (2016), doi.org/10.4324/9781135000356-REM819-1.
Written by Abel K. Aruan (November 12, 2024); Edited by Abel K. Aruan (January 24, 2025).