Contemporary Indonesian art is not one story but many, shaped by different islands, traditions and histories, and by artists moving between Indonesia and the wider world. Tapestry of Encounters brings together ten artists working in Indonesia and Australia, across painting, sculpture, installation, textiles and mixed media. Presented at Western Sydney University’s Institute for Australian and Asian Arts and Culture, it is the first exhibition of contemporary Indonesian art on the University’s campus.

Ari Bayuaji, Faelerie, Made Wiguna Valasara, Lutfi Yanuar, Anagard, I Made Widya Diputra, Antonio S. Sinaga, Agus Wijaya, Citra Sasmita and Desrat Fianda each arrive from a different path. Their works move between tradition and experimentation, memory and imagination, private experience and collective history. They draw on mythology, ritual and cultural memory as readily as environmental change, migration, urban life and shifting identity. Inherited forms are reimagined, materials transformed and social realities questioned.

Staged in one of Australia’s most culturally diverse regions, the exhibition becomes a meeting point: between Western Sydney and the University’s Surabaya campus, between Australia and Indonesia, and between the artworks and audiences who may be meeting contemporary Indonesian art for the first time.

Presented in partnership by REDBASE, the Institute for Australian and Asian Arts and Culture at Western Sydney University, and Kabo Art Collector, Melbourne