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Immigrant Status: Contributions

Artists

Toto Sugiarto (Indonesia)

"For me to paint is to celebrate my own soul because I can express
almost anything that we cannot express formally.
Painting is like a dialogue inside your heart."

Everyday when I pass the streets in my way to or in my way home (sic) from the studio where I make my paintings, my eyes are "forced" to see writings on the name plates of the sex business locations that are sexually very provocative. There are also places which display mannequins of naked woman (sic) hung here and there like works of art installation.

TV presents various kinds of films most of them are interspersed with violence and sex and drugs just like everyday meal for society.

. . . In this global era it is almost impossible to filter or stem the negative information flow due to advanced and high availability information technology facilities. . . . Through internet people can see the world in front of their eyes, including pornographical sites.

The above things are distressing, agitating, and inspiring to be presented in my paintings this time since they are "interesting" phenomenon to be reflected and visualized

Being a Muslim, (Sugiarto) is self-conscious about finding himself a newcomer and member of a minority group in the social environment in America. At least, a lot of things have jolted him, giving him a sort of cultural shock . . .

I get my ideas from my environment, by dialogue, by watching. I get excitement or feel sad. I feel my painting has succeeded if, just by being honest with myself, some else understands. Painting is like catharsis. It releases my heart from depression. Ideas come almost everyday -- political, religious. I don"t know how to write it on a piece of paper but my painting can speak for me.

Born in Jakarta in 1964, Toto Sugiarto was raised in a Moslem family in Cilacap, Central Java. In 1986, he entered the Painting Program, Fine Art and Design Department, Art Institute of Indonesia (ISI) in Yogyakarta and completed a Bachelor of Fine Art in 1996. He has been a resident of Minneapolis since 1996.

He currently works as a 3-D digital artist for Destineer Studios.

Exhibited works:
The Victims Still Must Smile (oil painting)
Telescope (oil painting)
Stop "The Boogyman" (oil painting)
Ceremony of the Dead (oil painting)
Angry Semar (oil painting)
Untitled (batik)