Ipeh Nur
Ipeh Nur was born in 1993 in Yogyakarta. She has graduated in 2016 from Indonesia Institute of Arts (ISI), Yogyakarta, majoring in graphic art. Her works are inspired by daily life issues and her personal experiences.
Her works based on personal experiences, daily problems, memories, resilience, and histories as background events, are mostly conveyed through drawing and painting. She also uses other mediums and techniques, such as batik, ceramics, printmaking, sculpture, installation, video, and murals, where mediums are not merely symbols or metaphors, but connect personally. Since 2019, her work is connected to her maritime culture, looking at how knowledge has been passed down by older generations and confronting it with today’s issues. Her stories are often based on her open interpretation of ancient mythology. Nur graduated from the Department of Printmaking, Indonesian Institute of the Arts, Yogyakarta. Her solo exhibitions have been held at venues including Soboman (2019), Art Space, Yogyakarta (2022) and Kedai Kebun Forum, Yogyakarta (2019).
For the exhibition Pressing Matters (2018) at Framer Framed, Ipeh Nur traveled to the Netherlands to create a new commissioned, site-specific artwork. The 6 meter wide mural Bunga Merah, was realized in the public hallways of the Tolhuistuin. The mural Bunga Merah depicted the genocide on the Moluccan Banda islands by the VOC in 1621. Besides this new wall piece, Nur also contributed a design for the Pentagonal Icositetrahedron (2017) by Kevin Van Braak, a wooden construction featuring woodcarvings of 24 artists from Indonesia. This work was shown in exhibitions Pentagonal Icositetrahedron (2017) at Cemeti Institute for Art and Society in Yogyakarta Pressing Matters (2018) at Framer Framed. Her design contribution for Pentagonal Icositetrahedron is a continuation of her earlier Salimah Series. Salimah is a ‘dangdut’ (Indonesian musical genre) singer, a widow and mother of one child. Set in the 1990s, she often appears wearing sexy, tight-fitting tops and hot pants, accentuating her curvaceous body. People bully but also adore her. Salimah’s past life is quite in contrast with her current appearance, as she used to spend most of her time studying the Quran in the mosque. Her journey cannot be separated from the other two personas present in the work: Solihin, a village leader and her true admirer, and Ahmad, a religious leader who often confronts her for being vulgar. As religious ideology limits Salimah’s space as a woman to express and practice her profession, this work offers a critical view about issues around sexuality, religion, and politics after the fall of Suharto’s Orde Baru (New Order) regime.
She has participated in numerous exhibitions including Beyond Masculinity (2016) at Footscray Community Arts Centre in Melbourne, Beyond Masculinity (2016) at Ark Galerie in Jakarta; Beresyit! (2016) at Krack! Studio in Yogyakarta; Pentagonal Icositetrahedron (2017) at Cemeti Institute for Art and Society in Yogyakarta; Pressing Matters (2018) and On the Nature of Botanical Gardens (2020) both at Framer Framed in Amsterdam; Kebun Sejarah (Garden of History) (2021) at Zone2Source in Amsterdam; PinchukArtCentre, Kyiv, (2024); and SculptureCenter, New York, (2024); ArtSpace House, Gwangju, (2025); ArtJakarta, JIExpo Kemayoran, Jakarta, (2025); Ace House, Yogyakarta, (2025); Sharjah Art Biennial 16, (2025); and Sonsbeek Biennale (2026), Arnhem.
In 2024, she was awarded the Special Prize of the Future Generation Art Prize.
Ontwerp van Ipeh Nur voor Pentagonal Icositetrahedron, een werk van Kevin van Braak
Exhibitions
Exhibition: On the Nature of Botanical Gardens
Contemporary indonesian perspectives by nine Indonesian artists
