Haris Purnomo

Haris Purnomo was born in 1956 in Delanggu, Klaten, Central Java, Indonesia. He trained at Sekolah Seni Rupa Indonesia (SSRI) in Yogyakarta, graduating in 1975, and went on to Sekolah Tinggi Seni Rupa Indonesia "ASRI" (now part of Institut Seni Indonesia Yogyakarta), completing his studies there in 1984. His first solo project, Luka, was shown on the STSRI Asri campus in Yogyakarta the same year he graduated.

Over the following two decades he built a practice centered on painting and mixed installation, developing the recurring motif of the infant, often tattooed or wrapped in cloth, as an allegory for social conditioning, violence, and political power in Indonesia. His profile rose through a series of solo exhibitions in Jakarta, including Di Bawah Sayap Garuda at Nadi Gallery in 2006 and alien:nation at the National Gallery of Indonesia in 2007. In 2007 he received the Schoeni Public Vote Prize within the Sovereign Asian Art Prize in Hong Kong, a recognition his own biography and contemporaneous Indonesian press date to 2007, though a later Indonesian Wikipedia entry lists 2017; the earlier, better corroborated date is used here.

His painting Orang Hilang (2013), a portrait referencing missing Indonesian pro-democracy activists, is held by the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne. His work has also traveled internationally, including a 2011 group presentation of Indonesian contemporary art at the Saatchi Gallery in London, and solo exhibitions at Primae Noctis Art Gallery in Lugano (2012) and MiFA Gallery in Melbourne (2013). He has continued to exhibit in Jakarta into the 2010s and 2020s, including a solo show at Galeri Salihara in 2014, and by 2012 had settled in Cibubur, near Jakarta, where he founded a multidisciplinary art space called Roemah 9A. As of 2026 he continues to work and exhibit in Indonesia.

Purnomo's reputation rests primarily on institutional and curatorial recognition rather than a large body of published art criticism. The 2007 Schoeni Public Vote Prize within the Sovereign Asian Art Prize in Hong Kong marked a turning point in his broader visibility. The National Gallery of Victoria's acquisition of Orang Hilang (2013) places him among a small group of Indonesian contemporary artists with a documented presence in an international public collection. His inclusion in the 2011 Indonesian contemporary art exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in London further extended his exposure beyond Indonesia. No verifiable, exact critical quotation from a named critic in a major outlet could be confirmed for this profile.

Haris Purnomo's market is not documented in the major international auction databases and price aggregators. No sale with a confirmed title, price, currency, auction house, and date could be verified as of 2026-07-16, and no result appears among the internationally tracked record-price lists for contemporary art. His work does appear periodically in Indonesian and regional auction house catalogues, such as Sidharta Auctioneer, but detailed, verifiable results from those sales are not part of the public record available here. His commercial activity to date appears concentrated in gallery and institutional exhibition channels in Indonesia and, occasionally, abroad, rather than in the major international auction circuit.

There is no published catalogue raisonne for Haris Purnomo, and no current gallery or estate representation could be confirmed as of 2026-07-16; his historical solo shows have been hosted by a range of galleries in Jakarta, Lugano, and Melbourne rather than a single long-term dealer. Because his public auction record cannot be verified in the sources available, collectors should treat any auction price attributed to him with particular caution and confirm provenance directly with the seller or through the artist's own exhibition archive. His clearest external validation is institutional: acquisition and display by the National Gallery of Victoria and inclusion in major curated surveys of Indonesian contemporary art.