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| Setyo Mardiyantoro was born in Java, Indonesia the 13/04/64 and got a
degree in Agricultural technology at the National University of Jember,
Indonesia in 1990. In '91 he came to Italy to follow his real vocation
which is artistic. At present he lives in Naples where he is studying
architecture and works as a painter. |
In his work there is all the history of his experience which has matured in two completely different
worlds similar only for their richness and variety of traditional
cultures and the production of works of art. The remembrance and the
nostalgia for an exuberant nature can be seen in the Italian landscapes
which admiration covers with a golden light and which are enriched with
stylized birds, the symbol of sentiments and thoughts which they have
recalled up. Images of oriental fairy tales, mythological scenes and
animals confront one another with the enigmatic faces of western women
in thoughtful attitudes.
| In his first works he is inspired by the technique of Indonesian Batik,
where the "tik" is the drop of wax used to leave a point uncoloured. In
his contact with traditional western art he has found that pointillism
is particularly near in it's results to this technique and he is
inspired by this in his latest works. |
Setyo is also a dancer and has given several different performances of
traditional dance. Dance is in fact is fundamental to Indonesian culture
to reach an inner balance and express mythical contents and moral
teachings. It is this balance that is found also in his pictorial works
where the original contribution of colours and the exuberant richness of
his figures always results in compositions of great balance which makes
his work so pleasant.
Vincenzo Montella
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Setyo's cultural background is vast and alien, he is an
authentic Indonesian, whose solid identity is seen in stories which
have nothing to do with naive and although they refer to classical
overseas adventures they appear curiously new and fresh to our culture.
They are stories of people, isolated figures or small groups against a
decorative background. They talk of gratitude, frendship, of interior
peace and religious nobility. The countryside dominates everything
enlivend by the wind, the distant sound of the sea, the call of the
birds, influenced by ancient labours, stories of forgotten lands full of
the impetus of a truly innocent nature, I would say, too open.
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A feeling of estrangement which in Setyo cannot fall into
self-satisfied esoticism is communicated to the observer. In the careful
use of the narratve elements, in the choice of gestures and details he
avoids every temptation giving to the elements their true nature with
purity and resigned amazement, perhaps to show that Java which will
never again be an esotic country, remains an uncontaminated oasis.
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In his kaleidoscope of sinuous forms made of light, where the
changes in tone are achieved with the gradual thickening of the dots and
lines in primary tone, sometimes on material or other substances, this
painting reveals the oriental historical climate, measuring its effect
on today's global village.
The author, after all works in Naples, a southen city.
Elio Galasso
For further information:
mardiyantoro@yahoo.com
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