ISA February Newsletter 2026

 

Biophilia: Exquisite Corpse

14 February – 16 April 2026

Wisma 46, Jakarta

 

ISA Art Gallery proudly presents Biophilia, its biannual exhibition series dedicated to supporting environmental resistance. This year’s edition, Exquisite Corpse, brings together Arahmaiani, Dabi Arnasa, Anang Saptoto, Cynthia Delaney Suwito, Fitri DK, Kynan Tegar × Studio Birthplace × Novo Amor, Mater Design Lab, Reza Kutjh, and Teguh Ostenrik in a collaborative reflection on ecological interdependence.

 

Drawing from the surrealist game of chance, Exquisite Corpse unfolds unpredictably, piece by piece, like ripples across water or the concentric growth of a tree’s rings. The exhibition speaks to cycles of growth and decay, and to bodies, systems, and landscapes entangled in mutual transformation. At its core, it calls for renewed attentiveness to the fragile balance that sustains us and invites us to reimagine our place within the ecosystems we inhabit.

 

 

Opening Ceremony | 14th February 2026, 4 PM

 

11 AM - 6 PM | Tuesdays - Saturdays

Closed on Sundays, Mondays & Public Holidays

Wisma 46 – Ground Floor

Jl. Jend. Sudirman No.Kav 1, Jakarta

125 PROJECTS at Art Fair Philippines 2026

 

ISA Art Gallery is proud to announce the inaugural exhibition of 125 PROJECTS, Tomorrow Belongs to Those Who Can Hear It Calling, marking the opening of the new gallery in the Philippines and its first participation at Art Fair Philippines. Curated by founder and director Gwen Bautista, the two-part exhibition brings together over forty artists, including Ida Lawrence, Luh’de Gita, and Sinta Tantra, and introduces 125 PROJECTS as a platform committed to future-making through critical reflection on the past and present.

 

Taking its title from a phrase used by David Bowie during the release of Heroes (1977) and informed by Mark Fisher’s writing on the “slow cancellation of the future,” the exhibition reflects on the diminishing capacity to imagine alternative futures. In response, it asserts collective imagination and solidarity as active tools for reclaiming futurity at a moment of heightened global uncertainty.

 

Opening Reception | 7th February 2026, 7 PM

 

10 AM - 9 PM | Friday - Sunday

Booth 2, 7th Floor

Circuit Corporate Centre One

The Circuit Makati

 

26 January – 3 April 2026

World Trade Centre 3, Jakarta

 

Opening in the early days of 2026, Sebuah Jeda Peneduh – A Moment’s Pause offers a reflective tribute to the late master painter A.D. Pirous. Presented at World Trade Centre Jakarta in collaboration with Jakarta Land, ISA Art and Design, and Serambi Pirous, the exhibition positions itself as a deliberate counterpoint to the relentless pace of contemporary life shaped by commerce, politics, and bureaucratic urgency.

 

Through Pirous’s signature abstract-narrative approach, the exhibition foregrounds art as an act of storytelling rather than spectacle. While deeply informed by Islamic spirituality, Pirous’s works speak in a universal visual language, inviting audiences of all backgrounds to pause, reflect, and momentarily disengage from ego-driven ambition. His practice gestures toward the restoration of three essential relationships often strained by modern life: with one another, with the earth, and with the Divine. In this season of restraint, the exhibition offers art as an opportunity to return to the world with renewed clarity and care.

 

Click here to view catalogue

 

7 AM - 4 PM | Mondays - Fridays

Closed on Weekends & Public Holidays

Main Lobby, World Trade Center 3

Jl. Jenderal Sudirman No.Kav. 29-31, Jakarta

 

Kunstmuseum Den Haag & Erasmus University Rotterdam

This month, Hadassah Emmerich unveils two major mural projects in the Netherlands, a museum commission at Kunstmuseum Den Haag and a public commission at Erasmus University Rotterdam. Opening on 14 February, the Kunstmuseum mural, Petals Pulp Papaya Plunge, is followed by the Erasmus University commission at the Langeveld Building, opening on 26 February. Both works extend Emmerich’s ongoing engagement with scale, surface, and the politics of looking within public and institutional spaces.

 

Commissioned for one of Kunstmuseum Den Haag’s monumental stairwells, Petals Pulp Papaya Plunge envelops visitors in a lush, abstracted plant world inspired by the museum’s historic batik panels and the architecture of Hendrik Petrus Berlage. Swirling leaves, suggestive fruit forms, and distorted peacock eyes unfold across the seven-meter-high space, with the papaya recurring as a central motif. For Emmerich, the fruit embodies ideas of sensuality and “bastardisation”; the hybrid form that exists between categories, a tension that sits at the core of her practice. The commission also reflects the museum’s commitment to structurally making space for female artists within its canon.

 

At Erasmus University, Emmerich was selected through a competitive proposal process supported by Murals Inc. Agency. The Langeveld Building murals comprise two large-scale compositions, distinguished by warm and cool color palettes that subtly reference the building’s energy systems. Organic, abstracted forms unfold across multiple floors, softening the rigidity of the concrete architecture while enhancing wayfinding and spatial rhythm.

 

Across both projects, Emmerich employs her distinctive stencil-based printing technique, developed since 2016, in which ink is transferred from vinyl stencils onto walls. Drawing on visual languages of advertising, Pop art, and ornament, the works balance sensuality and restraint, attraction and critical distance. Durable, low-impact materials and reusable stencils reinforce a commitment to sustainability, transforming transitional spaces into sites of encounter, reflection, and embodied experience.

 

Northern Centre for Contemporary Art, Darwin

12 February - 11 April 2026

 

Pasar Malam | Night Market brings together Ida Lawrence, Jumaadi, and thirteen Indonesian and Australian artists in a collective exhibition presented by 16albermarle Project Space in partnership with Krack! Print Studio. The exhibition presents a series of large format screenprints that examine the night market as a space of inversion, desire, and the unknown. Referencing mysticism, mythology, and ritual, Pasar Malam reflects on the night market as a site where social order is unsettled and hidden narratives emerge. Rather than exoticizing “otherness,” the exhibition points to the shadow spaces that exist within every community.

 

Produced in close collaboration with Krack! Print Studio, each work pushes the technical limits of screen-printing, resulting in monumental prints measuring 200 × 150 cm, made possible through newly developed printing techniques. The exhibition has been shown in Indonesia in mid-2025, before touring regional galleries across Australia from 2026 to 2027, with support from the Australian Government’s Visions of Australia program.

This February, ISA Art Gallery is pleased to highlight Jumaadi’s first public art commission, Upside Down Garden at Barangaroo, Sydney.

 

Known for his storytelling, Jumaadi works across drawing, installation, print, and performance. He will be presenting a series of upcoming projects, including a group exhibition at Tank Museum Shanghai and Busan Contemporary Art Museum, and a solo exhibition at AVA Gallery, Perth (March); Walyalup | Fremantle Arts Centre (May).

 

Jumaadi’s practice is shaped by personal experience, cultural lineages from his homeland, and explorations of love in its romantic, familial, and spiritual forms. His works are often inhabited by demons, spirits, and fantastical figures that move between the real and the imagined. Through these layered narratives, he creates poetic and intuitive spaces where personal memory, cultural mythology, and contemporary life converge.