Born in Indonesia, Haris Purnomo graduated from Sekolah Seni Rupa Indonesia Art School, Yogyakarta in 1975

and Sekolah Tinggi Seni Rupa Indonesia Asri College of Fine Arts in 1984. He has painted babies with tattoos over twenty years and became one of the most popular Indonesian artists. The artist went through Suharto’s time who built a military-dominated government. Therefore Haris was much more focus on carefully nuanced, photorealistic images of naked babies with tattoos which inspired him instead of themes catering to the general public. His works shows the introspections and possibilities toward culture and evokes a strong contrast from an impossible reality. Moreover the tattoos with a hint of pain and mysterious symbol underline the big difference between the painted innocent pure subjects and the ideas that people usually have about babies.

Selected Exhibitions:

3rd Nanjing Triennial ─ Reflective Asia, Nanjing Museum, Nanjing, China, 2008

Haris Purnomo: Visual Poetry, Center on Contemporary Art (COCA), Seattle, America, 2009

HARIS Purnomo: Babies in Transcendent Space, Primo Marella Gallery, Milan, Italy, 2012