WAYAN KARJA

Age : 39
Nationality : Indonesian
Studies : From 1975 until 1999, studied:

- ‘young artist’ painting style from his father, I Ketut Santra
- Traditional painting Ubud style from I Ketut Sujana
- Painting at the Indonesian Arts School, Denpasar, Bali
- Painting at Udayana University, Denpasar, Bali
- Painting & printmaking at the University of South Florida, USA

Wayan Karja is now the Head of the Visual Department at the ISI (Indonesian Art Institute) Denpasar – Bali. Previously he taught at School of Fine Arts in Ubud, and 2 years at the University of South Florida, USA.
Multicolor mandalas, strong vertical & horizontal elements, variations on blue, green but predominantly red and orange…
These are all images you can expect to find in the works of Balinese artist Wayan Karja.
The bulk of his work focuses on the mandala, which is a schematized representation of the cosmos, part of Hindu and Buddhist iconography. Its name comes from the Sanskrit word for “circle,” and its design, though always primarily circular, has found many different forms in different cultures throughout the world.The colors used in Karja’s mandalas are not a media anymore, but they become the subject of his paintings. Colors become part of a ‘healing process’, a reality of inner feelings. Through his work Wayan Karja, is building a bridge between his Balinese roots, the Hindu tradition and an international, contemporary perspective. His work is particularly remarkable and significant in the way it brings together Hindu and Western modernist concepts of color.“The Balinese culture is the root of my work. I have been digging into the roots of Balinese culture while exploring the Western culture. I am trying to develop a new form of art in a universal language.”Paintings are for him a way of searching for peacefulness, happiness and calm…When one is in a room or gallery filled with Karja’s paintings, it is as if one were inside a mandala, surrounded by its colors on all sides, enveloped in harmony & peacefulness. Wayan Karja’s numerous solo exhibitions since 1992 include shows in Bali (Gaya Gallery, Déjà vu Gallery…), Germany, Australia, Hong Kong and Florida – USA. Since 1983, he has also participated in nearly 50 group exhibitions in Bali, Jakarta, Surabaya, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Italy and the USA.

Coming:
Sept 2004, collective exhibition
at Museum Widaya, Jakarta
Oct 2004, collective exhibition
at Puri Gallery, Malang – East Java
Dec 2004, solo exhibition
at CSIS Jakarta and June 2005 in Switzerland.

You can find his work at:
Santra Putra Gallery,
Penestanan Kaja – Ubud, Ph: 0361 977 810. c.b