Entang Wiharso

Entang Wiharso (b. 1967, Tegal, Central Java, Indonesia) lives and works in Rhode Island and Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Wiharso's life and immediate family are bicultural, biracial, and heirs to diverse religious and spiritual legacies. Recent work focuses on the duality of cultures and experiences in his two homelands - Indonesia and America - building on ideas that connect spirituality and transcendence with national narratives of progress and destiny through a sustained exploration of landscape and geopolitical structures.

Wiharso's multidisciplinary practice speaks with urgency through diverse media, including painting, sculpture, video, installation, and performance. His dramatic visual language is instantly recognizable with its unique depictions of contemporary life and its relationship to the mythologies of a centuries-old Javanese and animist past and the high-speed, hyper-connected lifestyles of the 21st century. His work focuses on issues of national identity, migration, race, and power conflicts, overlaid with social, political, and sexual critique, revealing a complex picture of the human condition.

Entang Wiharso is a graduate of the Indonesian Institute of the Arts (1994). Wiharso has had more than 45 solo gallery and museum exhibitions in Asia, Europe and the United States, and has participated in numerous biennial exhibitions, including Kunming Art Biennial 2019, Yunnan, China; Indonesian Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale, Italy; Prospect.3. New Orleans, LA; Prague Biennale 6, Czech Republic; as well as in many prestigious international institutions such as Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia; Hudson Valley MOCA, Peekskill, NY; Jeonbuk Museum, Jeonbuk, South Korea; Museum MACAN, Jakarta, Indonesia; Singapore Tyler Print Institute; Gunma Museum of Modern Art, Gunma, Japan; Hilger Brotkunsthalle, Vienna, Austria; Singapore Art Museum; Galeri Nasional Indonesia; Lyon Musée d'art contemporain, Lyon, France; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan; Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland; Herbert F. Johnson Museum, Ithaca, NY; and most recently at the Asia Center, Harvard University, Boston, MA. Entang Wiharso is a 2019 Guggenheim Fellow and has participated in numerous residencies around the world.

Selected public collections include Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Centro Videoinsight®, Turino, Italy; Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine; Family Servais Collection, Brussels, Belgium; Galeri Nasional Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia; Guy & Myriam Ullens Foundation, Switzerland; Jeonbuk Museum, Jeonbuk, South Korea; Mead Art Museum, Amherst, Massachusetts; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia; National Gallery of Singapore, Singapore; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia; RISD Museum, Providence, Rhode Island; Rubell Family Collection, Miami, Florida, USA; United States Embassy, Jakarta, Indonesia; Yogyakarta International Airport, Yogyakarta, Indonesia; Yunnan Art Museum, Yunnan, China; among others. Entang Wiharso is a 2019 Guggenheim Fellow and has participated in numerous residencies around the world.