About the Artist
Artist Bio
Sofia Cristanti is an Indonesian Canadian artist. She emigrated to Canada in 2010. She is based in Saint John, NB. She holds a BFA major in Painting, and MBA from Institute of Technology Bandung (ITB), Indonesia.
Her works focus on contemporary art with evolving style and medium. Having a big life transition during her immigration in Canada, it has brought her exploring the artworks with subject matter that speaks out her voice as a first generation immigrant. She has received Cultural Diversity Awards and grants from Edmonton Art Council, ArtsNB, and other awards in Canada and abroad.
She had exhibited her art in groups and solo at the Uncorked NB, the Third Space Gallery, the Capitol Art Gallery Moncton (2019), The Beaverbrook gallery Fredericton(2019), Multicultural Association of Fredericton (2019), McMullen Gallery Edmonton (2018), SkirtsAfire Festival (2018), Edmonton Convention Centre (2017-2018), The Works Art and Design Festival (2017), CARFAC Alberta Artist Run Centres (2017), and also in Indonesia.
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Ethnic Origins
Southeast Asian
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Languages
English
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My Disciplines
Multidisciplinary
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Artist Statement
Sofia Cristanti has focused on conceptual art and had been working with many medium like painting, art installation, video art, and art performance when she was in Indonesia. Recently, she is focusing on painting with many painting mediums, and fibre art focusing on contemporary tapestry weaving. Her interest subject matters are human behaviour, popular culture, feminist study, philosophy, political and social issues, culture, nature and its relationship that happens in her daily life. She believes in research and planning to embody her artworks, and it is her way to decide what medium, style, and technique that suits to develop the subject matter. During her immigrant life in Canada she has faced many challenges as a first generation immigrant, one of them is how to maintain mental health. Her time was minimal when she had a full time job that demanded physical energy and mental health. It is a really a big challenge for her to maintain life balance between emotional, physical, and spiritual needs, also balancing time between family, social life, and work. Creating artworks has increased her awareness, given her mental and spiritual therapy, deeper meaning to what and how she sees the world, to see the beauty in reality. She likes to share the wisdom of her art journey. In her perspective, living with creative thinking gives life more joy, mindfulness, softness, and wisdom.