ROSIT MULYADI

Mulyadi—often known as Ocit—revisits the splendour of Romanticism not to reaffirm its promise of transcendence, but to unravel the tensions beneath its luminous surfaces. Figures in his paintings are suspended between concealment and revelation, where repetition never yields sameness but instead opens fissures of difference. Through irony and appropriation, Mulyadi traces how beauty may serve as both allure and ambush, a site of discovery yet also of unease.

Raised in the milieu of Islamic boarding school life, where images were often viewed with suspicion, Mulyadi transforms painting into a form of self-education—an arena where prohibitions return in altered guises. His canvases reveal not certainty but the restless intensity of living, reminding us that art’s power lies not in resolution but in its ability to destabilise and reconfigure what we think we know.

Bringing together works that converse with Romantic legacies, Indonesian modernism, and the artist’s own personal histories, Humans, After Centuries embodies Mulyadi’s shift from inherited imperatives towards an ethic of desire and exploration. His practice becomes less an act of homage than one of negotiation: between tradition and transgression, between the weight of history and the urgency of the present.

In staging these dialogues, Mulyadi offers a deeply personal yet timely reflection on what it means to be human after centuries of inherited images, ideals, and prohibitions.

Join us for the opening reception on Thursday, 2 October 2025, at 5:00 pm, at Gajah Gallery Jakarta. Humans, After Centuries runs until 26 October 2025.