HYACINTH

born in Bandung, 1964 Dadang Rukmana is recognised for his inventive use of watercolour, where the pigment is allowed to drip and settle across paper to form figures rather than being applied with a brush. This distinctive technique, first introduced in his exhibition "Tetes" at Semarang Gallery (2015), has since become the hallmark of his practice. Through it, he reinterprets familiar subjects from art history, including Affandi’s Mother, Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring, and Sudjojono’s In Front of an Open Mosquito Net, giving them a fresh and unexpected presence. His career spans decades of solo and group exhibitions across Indonesia, in Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Bali, and Surabaya, establishing him as a consistent figure in the contemporary art scene. Beyond exhibitions, his works have been examined in publications such as Moving from the Periphery (2018) and Enin Supriyanto’s After Activism (2015), highlighting the critical attention his art has received. In 2024, he was honoured with the East Java Artist Award, a recognition of his significant contribution to Indonesian contemporary art. Blending technical control with experimental methods, Dadang demonstrates how appropriation and innovation can coexist, producing works that remain both visually striking and conceptually engaging.