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Dede Eri Supria / Indonesia b.1956 / Labyrinth (from ‘Labyrinth’ series) 1987–88 / Oil on canvas / 207.3 x 227.5cm / The Kenneth and Yasuko Myer Collection of Contemporary Asian Art. Purchased 1993 with funds from The Myer Foundation and Michael Sidney Myer through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Dede Eri Supria
Dede Eri SupriaLabyrinth 1987–1988
Not Currently on Display
Far from the idealised or romanticised subjects of traditional realistic painting, Dede Eri Supria’s epically scaled and intricately rendered paintings reflect the ugliness and chaos of much urban life.
For his ‘Labyrinth’ series, Supria juxtaposed photorealistic images with illogical scenery, portraying vast, maze-like slums of commercial packaging from a heightened perspective. Through metaphor and a colour palette of nightmarish intensity, the works suggest the human suffering of urban poverty and its relationship to consumer society.
Dede Eri Supria was born in Jakarta, Indonesia in 1956. His art career began at the age of ten, when his father, who was an advertisement painter, began to teach him to paint.
His interest in photorealism was fostered while assisting in the studio of Indonesian social realist Dukut Hendratnoto and at art school in Yogyakarta. In 1977, he joined the politically engaged Gerakan Seni Rupa Baru or New Art Movement, whose search for an ‘aesthetics of emancipation’ saw him apply his considerable talents to social criticism.