I MADE GRIYAWAN
Born as the youngest of 14 children, in one of the centers of art, in Batuan, I Made Griyawan (b. 1979) grew up in a family of artists. This made him familiar with the process of work of art surrounded his everyday life. Griyawan never attend a formal art education. His environment is a living art laboratory that has nurtured his creativity and skills. As a self-taught artist, he holds firmly to his father’s advice to never imitate and to seek his own way in creating art. “Playing in the Water” is his third solo exhibition. In this exhibition, he discovered a zone that made him dare to further explore the idea of a simpler and universal theme. Imagery of ocean waves that adorn many of his works seemed to provide a fertile ground for the birth of renewal in Griyawan’s adventures. The water which was only a complimentary element of his previous paintings, gradually transformed into a novel visual language. And in some works, he has the courage to make “water” as the central topic. The focus on story telling slowly vanishes from his canvases, although we can stil find traces of philosophical point of view derived from the hindu religious texts. In addition, Griyawan rekindled the use of natural dyes found around him, such as the use of dyes derived from indegenious flowers. Of course his research has passed through a series of testing processes so that he feels confident to present it as it is. Capturing the essence of freedom and cultivating the joy of simplicity is becoming an ethos in the new works of Griyawan. Seemingly calm waters can drown all things on and under the surface.