Maryanto (b.1977, Indonesia) will feature in a solo presentation of charcoal drawings and sculptural installations. Drawing from the term “Space of Exception”, a reference to Giorgio Agamben’s “state of exception”.  

Agamben stated that the “suspension of the whole juridical order itself … marks … the limits, the threshold of the juridical order”. The “space of exception” involves taking a position outside the existing “natural” state, thereby defining  the boundary of the space beyond or outside the normal order or a place where normal law does not hold, for example in Guantanamo Bay.  Maryanto takes inspiration from this concept in his work and refers to it as a meditation on space and an exception from reality. From a starting point of “perceived reality”, Maryanto’s installations of drawings and sculpture set out to create a “space of exception” environment set apart from such perceived reality that allows for experimentation, research and discussion to happen.

Maryanto’s work “Pandora’s Box and Tales of a Gold mine”, 2013, was a studio presentation at the Rijksacadamie where he created a charcoal installation within the gallery space. “Camouflage”, 2014, is a recent work using an outdoor façade at Gillman Barracks consisting of wheat-pasted prints and painting that “camouflage” or emulate the natural environment.

Maryanto was born in Jakarta and received his formal training in the arts at the Institute of the Art, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. He completed a residency in the Netherlands at the Rijksacademie van beeldende kunsten and also at the Esculea de Orient programme at Casa Asia Barcelona, Spain. His work has also been featured in a public art platform at Art Stage Singapore in 2014.