Born 1973, Sidoarjo, Indonesia
Lives and works in Sydney, Australia, and Imogiri, Indonesia

Jumaadi moved from Java to Sydney to study in 2000 and embarked on a prolific career as an artist in Australia. He also maintains a studio in Imogiri, a small village in the Yogyakarta region. Intimate storytelling forms the heart of his practice and is revealed through narrative paintings, performance and poetry. Jumaadi recounts folktales, stories of migration and fantastical journeys on large cloths, through tin-sheet cut-outs, buffalo-hide puppets and shadow-puppet productions.

Since 2009, Jumaadi has also spent time in the village of Kamasan in eastern Bali — home to the celebrated tradition of Kamasan painting, which uses a specially prepared Balinese cloth to illustrate religious teachings and for ceremonial purposes. The tradition dates to the sixteenth century and was brought to Bali from the Hindu-Buddhist kingdom of Majapahit in neighbouring East Java (Jawa Timur). Jumaadi’s ancestors are from Majapahit, so working with Kamasan artists has become a way of reconnecting with his ancestors’ traditions, preparing giant Kamasan cloths as the basis for his recent series.