Ari Bayuaji was born in Indonesia in 1975. He graduated as a civil engineer and worked in Indonesia before deciding to move to Canada permanently in 2005. Once in Montreal,
he studied Fine Arts at Concordia University from 2005 to 2010 and now, based in
Montreal he also develops his artistic practice in Bali. The artist is known mainly for his
art installations that incorporate the use of found and ready-made objects he collects
from various parts of the world, thereby exposing himself to the different cultural
traditions.
Ari Bayuaji is expert in conveying aspects of daily life within a culture as his works often
expose the overlooked artistic value in everyday life expressed through objects and
places and their roles within a society. The found or ready-made objects that compose
his creative material might be "old", but he injects his work with emotion influenced by
the contemporary issues he seeks to address to create the "content" as his artworks to
create something "new".
Ari Bayuaji has been traveling extensively internationally to participate in numerous
artist-in-residency programs while also participating in international group shows in
Korea, Taiwan, Denmark, Indonesia, Germany and The United States. His works are part
of the permanent collection of Musée des Beaux Arts de Montréal and the Musée
National des Beaux-Arts du Québec and have been exhibited in major solo exhibitions in
Singapore, Taipei (Taiwan), Ste-Alvère (France), Dusseldorf (Germany),
Rotterdam, (Netherlands), Toronto (Canada) Sydney (Australia), Bangkok (Thailand),
Washington DC (USA), and Jogjakarta (Indonesia). Ari created installations
of his work from his Weaving the Ocean project at the 2023 Cheongju Craft Biennale and the 2023 Busan Sea Art Festival in South Korea and just recently at the 2024 Bangkok Art Biennale. His solo installation, Weaving the Ocean: In Ari Bayuaji's Studio opened November 25th 2023 at Espace Pour la Vie at the Biosphère in Montreal and will conclude on March 2, 2025. From April 17th through September 2nd, 2025, a solo exhibition entitled Ari Bayuaji- An Act of Meditation from the series Weaving the Ocean will be presented by the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo in their Prince Takamoto Gallery.