Galerie Michael Janssen is pleased to present its first solo exhibition with young Indonesian painter Iabadiou Piko.(*1984) Featuring a series of abstract paintings, “Proporsi Biru - Der Anteil des Blaus” (proportion of blue) is Piko’s first solo exhibition outside of his native Indonesia following a successful museum presentation at Selasar Sunaryo Art Space in Bandung, Indonesia. A self - taught painter who majored in Art Photography, Piko is heavily inspired by his surrounding environment - expressing and translating reality into paintings using a rich visual language. “My work is an expression and the memory of behavior and personal feeling of anxiety about the perception of material reality, fantasy and human transformation. It is inspired by doodles, lines, images, impressions of forms, shapes, colors and environments that I have seen.” 20th century Western painting history with artists ranging from Picasso, Basquiat, Dubuffet and Twombly were inspirational to Piko’s recent series of paintings presented at the gallery. Piko explored their oeuvre mostly through books and documentary films – as there is no museum in Indonesia – yet – showing a substantial collection of (Western) modern and contemporary art. The artist is eager to express strong emotions through his paintings and free his personal feelings to reach the pinnacle of creativity. Here it is secondary if his inspiration stems from studying the „real“ paintings or their reproductions.
Artists like Joseph Beuys and Antoni Tàpies as well strongly inspired Piko. Joseph Beuys as a performance, installation, and conceptual artist who considers the artists’ train of thought important. Antoni Tàpies, a self-taught artist as well and a representative of „Art informel“ or later „Matter painting” whose intuitive use of found objects and materials in his paintings emphasizes the aspect of chance and improvisation when working. Exploring the expressive capacity of abstraction, the works are both allegorical and metaphorical at the same time and function as a visual diary of sorts for the artist where he records and illustrates his emotions, experiences and memories. The paintings present an alternative reading of abstraction in the present context of Indonesia and the world. Art and life for Piko are therefore not only intertwined but inseparable.

Iabadio Piko lives and works in Yogyakarta. He studied at Academic Design of Vision Yogyakarta Department ( ADVY ) 2005, majoring in Art Photography and is a self- taight painter. In 2014, “The Top 10 of Asia” magazine included Piko in the list of 10 visual artists emerging in Asia. He has exhibetd in Bandung, Yogyakarta, Semarang, Solo, Padang, Jakarta and Surabaya Indonesia, as well as in Taiwan, Europe and the US. Residencies include Transit #3 Residency at Selasar Sunaryo Art Space Bandung and Luzhunan Historical House, Miaoli, Taiwan.