Bermain Dengan Anak-Anakku(Playing with My Children), 2004, acrylic on canvas, 100 by 100 cm. Courtesy of Buang S Collection, Singapore. © I Gusti Ayu Kadek Murniasih.
The painter I Gusti Ayu Kadek Murniasih (1966–2006), known as Murni, refined a unique style of minimalist figuration and bright colors with which she broke away from traditional themes to express memories of a traumatic past and wild dreams. Born in Bali in 1966, Murni left her impoverished family at the age of ten and spent her adolescence as a domestic worker for a Chinese-Indonesian family in Jakarta. In 1987, Murni returned to Bali where she married a man whom she met while working in a jewelry factory. She soon ended what was an abusive marriage and moved to Ubud, where she learned the Pengosekan style of painting, traditionally a male-dominated practice, and began a new chapter of her life as an artist.
Murni’s subject matter ranges from observations of daily life to meditations on violence and sex, and many of her themes can be traced back to her fraught childhood experiences. Rendered in a style that melds the organic lines of Pengosekan painting with surrealistic forms and a vivid palette, Murni’s imagery celebrates female desire, visualizes psychedelic dreams, and expresses the legacy of personal trauma.
Her work in the Taipei Biennial 2023 foregrounds shamanistic motifs related to the artist’s communion with animals and other nonhuman creatures. Like many of Murni’s paintings, these works feature images and narratives captured from her dreams and subconscious.
