Christine Ay Tjoe

Christine Ay Tjoe, born in 1973 in Bandung, West Java, is one of Indonesia’s most celebrated contemporary female artists.

Christine Ay Tjoe's Art Style

Christine Ay Tjoe began her career as a graphic artist, exploring the intaglio drypoint printing technique. She later started working with textiles before returning to her artistic practice in the early 2000s.

Her work encompasses a wide range of art forms, including painting on canvas, works on paper, sculptures, and large-scale installations. Her art focuses on the human condition and addresses themes of philosophy and spirituality.

Ay Tjoe's mastery of drypoint has revitalized the art of printmaking. Her experimentation with this technique has significantly influenced her practice, where lines and earthy tones dominate her compositions. These strong, charged colors evoke powerful emotions and convey a sense of depth and intensity. Ay Tjoe's paintings often reflect her personal experiences and emotions. She embraces the spontaneous emergence of characters or creatures in her works, using them to represent forces of authority or higher beings.

Exhibitions of Christine Ay Tjoe's Works

Ay Tjoe has exhibited widely, with a major retrospective of her works held at SongEun ArtSpace in Seoul in 2015. Notable solo exhibitions include "Myriad of ‘paste’" at Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo (2016), and "Christine Ay Tjoe" at White Cube, Bermondsey (2016).

The works created during her residency at STPI were shown at "Christine Ay Tjoe: Eating Excess" at STPI Gallery, Singapore (2009). She has also participated in significant group exhibitions, such as "Taboos and Transgressions in Contemporary Indonesian Art" at the Johnson Museum at Cornell University, New York (2005), and the Beijing International Art Biennale (2003). Other showcases include the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung (2012); Fondazione Claudio Buziol, Venice (2011); Shanghai Contemporary (2010); National Gallery, Jakarta (2009); and the China National Museum of Fine Art (2003).