John Martono’s abstract works, which blend painting with hand embroidery on silk, offer a fresh and distinctive perspective within Indonesia’s contemporary fine arts scene. His innovative approach combines the precision of textile science, the artistry of embroidery, and the fluidity of painting on silk—each requiring a specialized technique that has become his signature form of expression.

With a background as a textile designer and years of experience as a lecturer, alongside a Master’s degree in Design from the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), John masterfully intertwines these diverse elements, resulting in striking and elegant works of art.

Artist Statement:

The Journey of Happiness is a realization of a process that after all this time concepting and working in fine arts that in and on itself is its own happiness.

Throughout the various situations that accompany this creative process I personally calls it as happiness in every details.

Situation in the form of individual feelings becomes a stimulus in a work that is born with the intensity of process from time to time. A situation that exist outside of my experience become one of my responsive thinking spaces so that I also have to distance myself from all these

events in order to get sufficient points of reflection. In essence, thinking about appearance in an imaginative context is the search for knowledge on a broad horizon.

Please enjoy my artworks and know that you are a part of the happiness of these works.”