Episode 15: Zico Albaiquni – Artmaking, fatherhood, and the questions of life
In this episode, I sat down with my good friend artist and painter Zico Albaiquni. I spent the day at Zico’s and his wife, Ayas’ house as they settled down in their new home in Melbourne, Australia. We spoke about his experiences growing up in a family of artists, his daily routine as a father of two young kids, and the power of gratitude, creativity, and reflection in life and artistic practice. We also discussed the importance of asking questions and cultivating curiosity in Zico’s artmaking journey. We found that it is often the seemingly small or mundane moments in our everyday life, whether it be making coffee, playing with our kids, or walking to the train station, that feed into our creative practice and strengthens our ability to think deeply about the world around us.
About Zico Albaiquni
Zico Albaiquni is a painter who lived and worked in Bandung, Indonesia, before moving to Australia in 2022 to pursue his PhD in Fine Art at the University of Melbourne. His vibrant paintings skillfully merge scenes taken from his surrounding landscapes with visuals and imageries from art history, archives, media, and advertising. In particular, he deploys references to various Indonesian traditions such as Mooi Indie (‘beautiful Indies’) painting — a genre of painting capturing romanticised scenes of the Indonesian landscape and its people under Dutch colonial rule. Albaiquni’s unusual and intriguing colour palette developed from the tonal formulas of this early tradition. He also references the links between art, advertising, and the commodification of landscape to investigate contemporary environmental issues in Indonesia. His large-scale works challenge conventional perspectives and formats, often playing with trompe l’oeil illusions and disrupting the rectangular borders of the canvas. In recent paintings, Albaiquni has begun to question the context and operation of painting by incorporating his own studio into his composition, or installing and circulating paintings in public spaces.
Find out more at yavuzgallery.com
This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body.