Vania Gunarti (born in 1992 in Jakarta) graduated with a BFA from the School of Fine Arts at Lasalle College of the Arts, Singapore. Her work spans multiple disciplines, using her body as a motif to challenge psychological aspects of sexuality within the social context of her upbringing and cultural disparities.

Vania Artistic Concept asserts that her body belongs to her, and she has the right to do what she wants with it something often taken for granted in the West. Despite the rapid flow of information and global interconnectivity, the female body remains largely unexplored territory within post-colonial Southeast Asian, particularly Malay Archipelago, male prejudices. In this region, the dominant male gaze continues to reject feminine representations, even as transparency increases and younger generations’ attitudes shift. This double standard remains deeply rooted, despite political promises and societal norms. Indecency is not only a criminal offense in Islam but can also be punishable by death under Sharia law especially when the offender is a woman. Without reform, Sharia law exists in a state of systemic stagnation, and no woman has ever been formally judged under its code. This highlights the limitations of what appears to be an open, Western-influenced Indonesian state bureaucracy. A woman may become a doctor, lawyer, or political spokesperson, but she remains voiceless and invisible when it comes to her sexuality. She can be sexy or even nude for the male gaze, yet such expressions are condemned as immoral, defamatory, and unacceptable when reflected through a matriarchal female gaze.

Vania Gunarti has participated in numerous prestigious exhibitions, including Art Jakarta 2023 at Redbase, Jakarta; Aotearoa Art Fair 2023 at Redbase, Auckland, New Zealand; and exhibitions at Redbase Art in Sydney, Australia, such as Underline (2023), Redbase Diaries #22 (2022), and I’mpulse (2022). Her work has also been shown at Gavlak Gallery in Los Angeles and New York, USA.