Erizal As

(b. 1979, Indonesia)

Erizal As is renowned for his vibrant abstract paintings that break free from traditional representation. Painting directly on his canvases instead of premeditating a fixed image, he sees intuition and organic improvisation as crucial to his process. Moreover, experimenting with diverse artistic forms and the complexities between them has always been a mark of his oeuvre. Early in his career, one could detect recognisable figures in his paintings: fantastical animals in motion, human figures gracefully playing a musical instrument, for instance. But his instincts towards abstraction were already revealing themselves through his wild, gestural strokes and forms. In his 2016 solo show Refiguring Portraiture and in the subsequent years, he delved deeper into these tendencies and abstracted the faces of human figures completely—a metaphor for humanity’s eroding values and the fragility of our truths and identities.

In 2019, Erizal decided to eliminate the figure entirely and venture into pure, non- representational paintings, which he presented in another solo exhibition, Formless Existence. While he continued to challenge humanity’s conflicted values and truths, expanding these concerns towards the deceptive nature of people in power, he expressed such concerns through a distinctly abstract language. Bold, impasto strokes; dynamic textures and vibrant, contrasting colours serve as vital expressions of realities that are constantly in flux, and thus, formless. Yet, embarking on an unexpected yet natural stylistic shift, Erizal has recently begun experimenting with landscape painting. From 2021, recognisable forms—rolling hills, lush greens, lakes and cliffs—have once again emerged on his canvases. 

Trained at the Indonesian Institute of Fine Art, Erizal has held several solo and group exhibitions in Singapore and Indonesia, and consistently participates in esteemed art fairs across Southeast Asia. His past solo shows include Refiguring Portraiture at Gajah Gallery Singapore (2016) and Formless Existence at Gajah Gallery Singapore (2019).