Jayanto Damanik Tan

Jayanto is a visual artist who was born and raised in a small village in North Sumatra, Indonesia to a Chinese-Malay-Sumatran Christian mother and Chinese-Guangdong Taoism father. As a Chinese-Indonesian Peranakan immigrant living in Sydney, who fled poverty and political repression in search of a better life, his practice blends Eastern and Western mythologies with the reality of current events. He draws on the identity politics of diaspora to express personal experiences of ‘otherness’. His practice shares autobiographical experiences of loss, displacement, hope and offering a sentiment of mixed spirituality and sharing demonstrates a diverse culture bringing the timeless wisdom of meditation to a contemporary world.

His art practice investigates the way collected found objects, ceramic, food, and personal performance activate and reveal hidden aspects of cultural identity to create emotional intensity and generate the potential for multiculturalism. Through interactive performance installation, hybrid cultures have the potential to create new identities from which it is possible to appreciate the increasingly mixed cultural identity throughout the world.

Jayanto holds a Bachelor of Fine Art and Master of Fine Art from the National Art School. He has been a finalist in several art prizes including the Blacktown Art Prize, North Sydney Art Prize, Fisher’s Ghost Art Award, and Rookwood Cemetery Sculpture Walk. He has had solo shows at Firstdraft, Woolloomooloo, and Australia-China Institute for the Arts, Western Sydney University Parramatta. Inner West Council funded him for EDGE Activations, Newtown ArtSeat, GreenWay public art as well as Northern Beaches Council. The Mittelschule am Aschberg Weisingen, Germany, and Monash University Melbourne funded him for paper lantern workshops. Most recently, Jayanto’s works have been selected for the Western Sydney University Sculpture Award, 2020, and a solo show at Verge Gallery, University of Sydney, 2021. His works have been included in group exhibitions across Australia, Europe, China, and Indonesia. He was selected for residencies at Tantery Pottery, Bali, Indonesia, and Red Gate Gallery, Beijing, China.

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We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we live and work– the Gadigal/Bidjigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay respects to their elders past, present and emerging.