In Citra Sasmita’s universe, naked women with long, flowing black hair are often engulfed in flames. Some sprout trees from their heads, their necks, or even their pelvises. Others metamorphose into snakes or birds. Still others wield swords and severed heads. Channeling creative and destructive energies, these divine beings, depicted in states of perpetual transformation, are deeply intertwined with nature.
A powerful voice reclaiming the narrative of Balinese art, Sasmita is best known for her bold reinterpretations of Kamasan scroll paintings, which originated in East Bali in the 15th century and have historically been the practice of men. An ancient Balinese art form rooted in Hindu epics, Indonesian mythologies, and palace tales of love and romance, war and death, or heaven, earth, and hell, Kamasan depict various stories of heroic men. In Sasmita’s “Timur Merah” series (2019–ongoing), which loosely translates to “The East is Red,” she challenges and reinvents these patriarchal narratives and inherited mythologies through a distinctly feminist perspective.
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Traditionally, women in Kamasan paintings are either overtly sexualized or villainized as demons, while men claim the spotlight. Sasmita disrupts this convention by placing women, portrayed as powerful, autonomous beings who defy societal constraints, at the heart of her post-patriarchal tableaux, while still following the strict rules of the form’s crowded compositions, ornate motifs, and vibrant color palette.
Sasmita, who also draws from the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata, said the “Timur Merah” series aims to “position women as central figures, as many ancient texts and paintings traditionally depict male heroism, while women are often relegated to mere decoration and reproductive roles.”
She often populates her iconography of strong female archetypes with depictions of her female ancestors as a way to pay tribute to how they helped her “find meaning through art,” she said. “They faced many hardships, and I capture their memories, as they endured various situations—from Dutch colonialism and the Japanese occupation to the political violence of 1965—showcasing their resilience.”
The self-taught artist is now having her first solo exhibition at a major institution, “Into Eternal Land” at the Barbican in London (on view through April 21). The show brings together newly commissioned, site-specific works that explore themes of ancestral memory, rituals, gender dynamics, and the precarity of the natural world. The exhibition’s title may be viewed as an invitation to embark on an introspective journey toward spiritual enlightenment.
“I was immediately drawn to how Citra Sasmita flips the script of so many socially conditioned narratives and ideas through her work: she confronts and questions the oppression of women’s voices, power, and place in history, the marginalization of craft traditions, the violence of colonialism in Indonesia, and more,” the exhibition’s curator, Lotte Johnson, told ARTnews.
For Sasmita, art is not merely something to be seen but a vehicle for greater transcendence. She has converted the Barbican’s Curve gallery into a ritualistic site, each work serving as a guide for a contemplative—or even sacred—encounter. Her signature panoramic scroll paintings wrap the circular walls, while dangling hair braids encircle python skin scrolls in shrine-like installations. Elsewhere, banner-size textile compositions, embroidered by female artisans in West Bali, depict hybrid woman-plant beings, and a ground turmeric mandala offers a space for meditation.
“Citra’s work is always beautifully choreographed in relation to the space around it—she has an incredible spatial intuitiveness that is influenced by the Indonesian practice of using the body as the basis for all measurements,” Johnson said. “She brings you physically and conceptually into a whole cosmology that she has created through her work.”
Born in 1990 in Bali, Sasmita grew up immersed in the island’s rich cultural traditions, which she sees as art forms in their own right. “I believe that being born Balinese was a stroke of luck because I have been exposed to art since childhood, even though it can’t be directly defined within institutional art references,” she said. “The forms of art found in rituals, daily life, and communal cooperation celebrate life through music, songs, and decorations. These experiences have been my artistic influences since childhood.”
Her path to art-making has also been untraditional. Her father, a chemistry teacher, didn’t approve of her artistic inclinations, so she studied physics and literature. But she became enmeshed in the island’s art scene, soon realizing just how male-dominated it is. She wanted to challenge that structure by carving out her own path, both embracing and contesting the historical canon of Balinese painting. For six years, she trained under Mangku Muriati, a Kamasan painter and Hindu priestess, whose “work ethic and principles have significantly influenced my perspective on art as a pathway to personal growth and deeper access to knowledge,” Sasmita said. “Spirituality is a discipline and emotional practice that is chosen by the artist as a way of life, enabling her artworks to resonate with the true purpose of art, which is to humanize humans.”
But Sasmita’s practice is not just one of reclamation of historical artistic modes. She also wants to confront Bali’s colonial past during which the Dutch turned the island into a “living museum” that, under the guise of cultural preservation, was promoted as an exotic travel destination. While Balinese art has long been associated with Indonesia’s tourism industry—often reduced to decorative paintings and market-friendly reproductions—she wants to resist the notion that Balinese art must conform to external perceptions that are not tied to religious and communal functions. Instead, she advocates for a more expansive, critical engagement with history and identity.
“Identifying myself as a Balinese artist is a political statement for me,” Sasmita said. “The art in Bali, faced by my generation over the past decades, has encountered significant challenges regarding its existence, and has been burdened by commodification and tourism stigma. As a result, there has been limited acceptance of Balinese artists within the Indonesian art scene, which often prioritizes discourse and artists centralized in Java. As a Balinese artist, I strive for decentralization, highlighting that art in Indonesia is extensive and encompasses various island regions, including Bali.”
This position is at the center of an installation she has created for the 2025 Sharjah Biennial (on view through June 15), which intertwines the story of Ida I Dewa Agung Istri Kanya—a 19th-century Balinese warrior-poet queen, also known as the Queen of Klungkung, who played a vital role in preserving the island’s history, fostering a literary culture, and resisting colonialism—with the rich material history of textiles. Commissioned by the Sharjah Art Foundation, Timur Merah Project XV: Poetry of the Sea, Vow of the Sun comprises three suspended cage-like structures woven from red, gold, and black fabric strips, affixed with fire chalice and serpent motifs that form a grid filled with embroidered and beaded square panels and Kamasan canvases. Enclosed within the cages is a two-channel video interpreting the Queen of Klungkung’s poetry manuscripts and an antique artifact referencing historical objects looted by Dutch colonialists during Bali’s wars. The installation sits alongside a trio of Kamasan paintings by Muriati, Sasmita’s teacher, that also depict Ida I Dewa Agung Istri Kanya’s battles against the Dutch.
“Citra’s practice challenges the notion of Balinese modern art in Bali’s art communities themselves,” Alia Swastika, a cocurator of the biennial, told ARTnews. “Balinese art was very much categorized through the lens of Western scholars using a Western perspective, and this categorization had almost been taken for granted. Citra’s works have shown exactly the freedom to form a new identity of what so-called Balinese contemporary art is by challenging tradition but also looking at tradition to speculate on the future.”
As Sasmita’s work gains global recognition, each painting an act of resistance, she remains steadfast in her commitment to redefining what Balinese art can be from within. “Creating art is like planting rice seeds and nurturing them to grow, or preparing a ritual offering as a prayer for the safety and balance of nature,” she said. “These simple concepts motivate my current artistic endeavors.”
