"Schizophrenic Culture" Charcoal on canvas, 1999 74.75" x 30.75"

Tisna, at 39, is the grand old man of this exhibition. Born and raised in Bandung, the capital of the Sundanese culture of west Java, Tisna studied graphic art at the Bandung Institute of Technology and in Germany. His dense, hyperactive etchings and lithographs draw together images from traditional Sundanese theatre and western art history to portray the contemporary drama of his Indonesia. He now teaches at the Bandung Institute of Technology, which makes him a civil servant and government employee, a status that he often uses as a satiric, ironical tool in his performance and installation works.