Keita Wirawan

Year of birth: 2005
Where do you live: Jakarta, Indonesia
Your education: Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Your discipline: Acrylic on canvas, pen on paper
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At such a young age, you already explore complex themes in your art. How did you first become interested in depicting dreams and darker aspects of the human mind?

My art style started about 2 years ago when I started sketching without any references and just started to draw these creatures with only my imaginations. I take inspiration from anything I find to be interesting, Movies, Tv Shows, even YouTube videos.

Your work is influenced by both Francis Bacon and Salvador Dali. How do you combine the surreal elements of Dali with the intense emotion of Bacon in your paintings?

In my paintings, I really try to incorporate things that are familiar to the human eye without being too obvious. I do that by maybe putting it in an unusual place or maybe I paint a figure that has too many features in its face. Emotion is something really crucial I think in any art form. Most of the time, I paint by just letting it happen. Not much thought is put out. I just do what I feel. Sometimes it doesn’t really go well, sometimes it does. That’s why there are many occasions where there is a painting within a painting, because I didn’t like what I was doing in the first part of the painting.

I say that I am inspired by both Francis Bacon and Salvador Dali because I am very interested in their work. Salvador Dali for his imagination from his dreams and Bacon for the dark nature of his paintings.

 Keita Wirawan | Man with a Room

The ‘Depictions of Dreams’ series mixes real-life objects with dreamlike figures. Can you share the process of how you choose the objects and figures for each piece?

As I said above, there isn’t really much thought that is put out in choosing the objects that I want to paint. Sometimes it just happens. But other times there is a personal meaning such as hydrangea flowers which are the favorite flowers of someone I cherish very much.

Do you recall a particular dream or moment that inspired one of your artworks? Can you describe the experience and how it translates into your canvas?

Actually, there are a lot of moments in my life where I thought “This could be a good drawing or painting.”. I love movies, music album covers, and other visual arts. After I watched a movie or a video about a visual art piece, that sometimes translates to what I dream about at night. The figure that is shown in “Figure in Magenta Pink” is actually the one that takes a lot of imagination. I took inspiration from my earlier drawings from my sketchbook that I kept a long time ago, and most of my sketchbooks are works I took from my dreams after a long nap.

How do you balance between reality and fiction in your artwork? Do you often find yourself leaning more towards one than the other?

I lean towards fiction. I’ve not always been like this. When I was a kid, I wanted to be able to draw hyper realistic drawings and paintings because I thought that was the way to actually showcase talent. As I grew older, I started to think art is just a representation of the artist. If the artist wants to draw something, they just draw it. Why make hyper realistic art when there’s already cameras and phones to take pictures? I like that nowadays, art is mostly from imagination.

Keita Wirawan | ½ Figures in a Room

You mentioned that your parents supported your early interest in art by enrolling you in lessons. How did these early experiences shape your current artistic style?

It really did. I’ve always been interested in art since I was in kindergarten, which I think my parents noticed. I used to draw these really bad drawings with crayons, but my dad insisted on hanging them in his office. When I was in elementary school, I started taking really hard drawing lessons. I even learned how to draw human anatomy when I was just in 3rd grade. The result of this now is that I don’t really need to think much about anything when I’m drawing. I just do it. I draw eyes, hands, torso, etc. by just muscle memory alone. Those lessons really are a big part of my artistic journey. That’s why I don’t want to waste my talent in art. I want to do this because of my father who was really supportive towards my talent as an artist since a very young age. If he was still with us, I just know my drawings and paintings would still be hanging in his office.

What role does your cultural background as an Indonesian artist play in your creative process?

My cultural background isn’t really shown in my drawings and paintings, but I do want people to know that Indonesians have a lot of talented artists. I myself want to be in the conversation of great Indonesian artists such as Heri Dono, Nyoman, Roby Dwi Antono, and many more. There are already a lot of talented Indonesian artists in my generation and I want to be known as one of them and for people from around the world to get to appreciate the artworks of Indonesian artists.