I Gusti Ayu Kadek Murniasih Publication

I Gusti Ayu Kadek Murniasih, known as ‘Murni’, was one of the most compelling and singular figures in contemporary Indonesian art. Born in Bali in 1966 and working prolifically until her untimely death in 2006, Murni created a body of work that is simultaneously confessional and confrontational, humorous and surreal. Unapologetically raw and disarmingly sincere, it challenged societal norms around gender, sexuality and desire, speaking to the unruly complexity of the female body.

This publication is produced on the occasion of the first international institutional solo exhibition of ‘Murni’ at Nottingham Contemporary. Bringing together newly commissioned essays and archival imagery, the publication seeks to honour Murni not only as a pioneering artist, but as an uncompromising chronicler of interior life, who through grotesque beauty and visceral honesty, dared to name what often goes unspoken in a language stripped of inhibitions – gloriously alive, fierce in its vulnerability, unafraid in its form. 

Number of pages: 60.

Limited to a print run of 300.

Authors: Salma Tuqan, Farah Wardani, Soemantri Widagdo, and Chus Martínez