In 2012, Yunizar began to seriously expand into sculpture, producing commanding cast bronze sculptures of life-size, arresting figures. The products of Yunizar’s sculptural experimentations reveal his fluid evolution from a theme he established in his painting practice: bringing childlike wonder to ordinary subject matters, in which the everyday world serves as a limitless source of inspiration. Unlike in his paintings, where oftentimes the presence of rhythmic, impressionistic scribbles would create fluid, shapeless, and intuitive marks on the canvas, his sculptures take on bolder, more defined forms.

The details, shapes and textures on his sculptural subjects are solid and intricate, capturing the whimsical qualities of his ever-expanding cast of imaginative creatures. Together, they reveal the artist’s ability to infuse magic into the otherwise banal and mundane. Depicting a monster-like lion bordering on the surreal, “Male Lion” encapsulates how, like in his paintings, the subjects in his sculptures may at first appear outwardly innocent and “naive”, but upon closer inspection are filled with depth, complexity and sophistication.
 

Yunizar

Yunizar (b. 1971, Talawi, West Sumatra, Indonesia) is a graduate of the Indonesian Institute for the Arts (ISI) in Yogyakarta and a prominent member of the Jendela group, Indonesia’s most prominent contemporary art collective. In 2007, Yunizar held his first solo museum exhibition at the National University of Singapore Museum (NUS), Singapore. He has also received Best Painting award by the Peksiminas III Exhibition (1995) and Best Painting from the Philip Morris Award V (1998).

Yunizar’s artistic training is reflected in his complex style of expression through interesting compositions and subtle color scheme. Natural elements are subjects of his large canvases and bronze sculptures. Conceived from the holistic concept of “rasa” (the act of perceiving the whole at once, involving simultaneously feelings, emotions, sensations, perceptions and judgments), his works depict visions of a lost world, so natural and archetypal as to become mythological. Unaffected by any trend coming from contemporary society, Yunizar silently witnesses the transformation of Indonesian traditional culture, gradually eroded under the pressure of modernity, yet present contingencies can’t override his own dimension.
 

Lender: Tang Contemporary Art