Sinta Tantra (b.1979) is interested in the interplay between colour, light, geometric and organic forms. Her paintings and installations are created in response to time and space, and are designed to subtly transform throughout the day, offering shifting moods and perspectives. Whether produced on a monumental scale or precisely rendered on canvas, her compositions employ a universal visual language that shifts the focus away from meaning to the emotional and physical experience of the artwork. 

Born in New York to Balinese parents, Tantra grew up in London where she studied at the Slade School of Fine Art (2003) and the Royal Academy Schools (2006). Her Balinese heritage is central to her practice both in terms of her collaborative working processes and her meditative approach to painting. Typically working in series, her compositions use repetitive forms reimagined in different spaces or configurations as if visualising a thought process or searching for a sense of balance while her choice of materials reflects on personal, social and cultural histories. 

In recent years, Tantra has turned to a darker palette, bringing a new layer of introspection to her painted work. In particular, she has been working with different shades of blue and gold leaf, playing with depth, light and reflection. Her exhibitions and installations, meanwhile, incorporate soundscapes, found objects and ritual-based practices to expand the painted plane and invite a more active state of contemplation. Her installation at Art Jakarta, for example, comprised a sculpture made of steel frame and suspended panels of blue glass, black Indonesian rock as a nod to Tantra’s ancestors, who came from a lineage of Balinese stone carvers, incense sticks and flowers while her solo exhibition Birds of Paradise at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery in Berlin (2021) weaved together painting, sculpture, slides, sound and archival materials to explore the bird’s transformation through history in the context of contemporary discourse around otherness and post-colonialism.

Tantra’s work has been exhibited at numerous international biennials, art fairs and in group exhibitions such as A New Paradise at the Saatchi Gallery in London (2022), Light in Retrospective at ISA Art and Design, Jakarta (2022), Small is Beautiful (2022) at the Flowers Gallery, London, Framer Framed (2020) in Amsterdam, the Karachi Biennale (2019), the Folkestone Triennial UK (2017) and the Liverpool Biennial UK (2012). Tantra’s work is part of the Government Art Collection, the Benetton Foundation collection, Museum MACAN, the Louis Vuitton collection and other private international collections.