Zico Albaiquni’s (b. 1987, Indonesia) vibrant figurative and landscape paintings play with aspects of Indonesian art history and notions of painterly representation. In particular, he deploys references to various Indonesian traditions such as Mooi Indie (‘beautiful Indies’) painting — a genre of painting capturing romanticised scenes of the Indonesian landscape and its people under Dutch colonial rule. Albaiquni’s unusual and intriguing colour palette developed from the tonal formulas of this early tradition. He also references the links between art, advertising, and the commodification of landscape to investigate contemporary environmental issues in Indonesia. His large-scale works challenge conventional perspectives and formats, often playing with trompe l’oeil illusions and disrupting the rectangular borders of the canvas. In recent paintings, Albaiquni has begun to question the context and operation of painting by incorporating his own studio into his composition, or installing and circulating paintings in public spaces.
Albaiquni holds an MA and BFA from the Institute Technology of Bandung, Indonesia. He has exhibited extensively in Indonesia, as well as in Australia, Italy, France, Austria, Netherlands, Hong Kong and Singapore. Recent curated shows include: On the Nature of Botanical Gardens, Framer Framed, Netherlands (2019), Contemporary Worlds: Indonesia, the National Gallery of Australia (2019), 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Australia (2018-19), and JAVA – Art Energy, Institut des Cultures d’Islam, France (2018). He was a finalist of the 2nd Bandung Contemporary Art Award (2012), Soemardja Award (2012) and Asia Award, Tokyo DesignWeek (2015). In 2015, Albaiquni was awarded the Bundesministerium für Unterricht, Kunst und Kultur (Ministry of Education, Art and Culture, Austria) Residency, resulting in two solo shows in the capital city of Vienna. Albaiquni is collected by the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (Australia), National Gallery of Australia, Singapore Art Museum, Museum MACAN (Indonesia), and Bega Valley Regional Gallery (Australia).