Citra Sasmita Bali, Indonesia, b. 1990

Citra Sasmita (b. 1990, Bali, Indonesia) is a self-taught artist. She studied literature and physics, then worked as a short story illustrator for the Bali Post before she began  developing her expanded artistic practice.

Sasmita focuses on unravelling the myths and misconceptions of Balinese art and culture. At the same time, shedding light on the Dutch colonial history, which had shaped notions of authenticity in Bali. She is also deeply invested in questioning a woman’s place in social hierarchy and seeks to upend normative constructs of gender by reimagining mythical and classical narratives of war and romance to exalt female resistance instead. Her works reflect the complexity between the Anthropocene and post-human, while simultaneously repositioning women within the historical canon – an action that is necessarily urgent in her Balinese environment.

Sasmita employs the Kamasan painting technique, which originates from a small village in Klungkung, East Bali since the 15th century and is traditionally exclusively practised by men to narrate Hindu epics. She engages with it as a reclamation of female agency, reimagining narratives drawn from ancient Balinese literature, rituals, mythologies and iconography. In recent years, she has expanded her practice to include sculpture and installation, incorporating various materials such as braided hairs, exotic animal skins, antique wooden pillars and ancient textiles to create her universe of empowered and divine cosmology.

Her work will be featured in the forthcoming Sharjah Biennial 16, Sharjah, UAE (6 February-15 June 2025) and Hawai’i Triennial 2025, Hawai’i (15 February-4 May 2025).