Gajah Gallery proudly presents Warna Garis (Colour of the Lines), the first solo exhibition of Tantin Udiantara at Gajah Gallery. Following the success of his solo exhibition in Lugano, Switzerland from late 2024 to early 2025, the contemporary artist from Bali, now based in Yogyakarta, returns to highlight his homeland. In this exhibition, Tantin combines traditional Balinese philosophies with a contemporary visual approach, creating a profound dialogue between cultural heritage and present-day artistic expression. The exhibition will be accompanied by an essay from Wayan Seriyoga Parta.

“How does a Balinese express something?”

This very question forms the foundation of Tantin Udiantara’s latest solo exhibition. His experience of ngayah, traditional and spiritual activities carried out voluntarily and collectively by the Balinese community, has shaped a distinctive, anti-ego worldview, a merging into a unique collective entity. This experience, felt most strongly among Balinese Hindus, is difficult to articulate verbally or convey universally, as so many of its elements are tacit, deeply embedded forms of knowledge that are hard to explain. Nevertheless, these ritual experiences give rise to visual imagery rich in symbolic value.

In Tantin’s works, fundamental forms such as flowing lines, geometry, and color gradations represent this praxis without yielding to the limitations of words. The meticulousness in the making of each piece also reflects the spirit and essential meaning of ngayah itself. In fact, to more deeply immerse himself in the concept of his latest series, Tantin returned from Yogyakarta and stayed for an extended period in Tampaksiring.

His series of line works, which began as visual études of unbroken line sketches, has evolved into a complete body of work. It starts with faint, soft outlines, followed by spontaneous interconnected lines, then selected lines highlighted through the sigar (layering) technique. These lines create a larger dimension and serve as accents within a continuous, dynamic composition. The improvisation on the connected lines then gave rise to the next series, featuring lines that appear broken yet still continuous.

This exhibition affirms that tradition is neither static nor bound to repeat in the same rhythm. Its existence within space and time (butha and kala) is entropic, constantly shifting and giving rise to new forms. The separated, broken lines reflect the ever-evolving dynamism of creativity, much like the traditional life of Balinese culture, which moves forward in a continuous, dynamic flow, constantly renewed by its people. Tradition lives in the motion of space and time, and upon closer observation, it is never truly the same from one moment to the next.

After a long period exploring visual forms often identified as Pop, in this exhibition Tantin “returns home,” yet not without bringing and merging the many elements he has learned as a contemporary artist in Yogyakarta.

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