An artist’s voice, their unique style which identifies them among their peers, is an essential aspect of a successful artist. For an emerging artist, young, talented, sensitive, ambitious, and impressionable, the journey of self-discovery in discerning who they are, what, and how they wish to express their creativity can be extremely difficult to unearth.
A signature style represents an intimate understanding and attention to inner dialogue. Honesty unlocks human potential, gifting poetic licence and opening the portal to creative flow. Emerging Balinese artist Ida Ayu Komang Sartika Dewi: (Dayu Sartika) has defined her voice; her life journey is her inspiration. She has become her own muse.
Dayu’s second solo exhibition, “Hari Ini Aku Kembali Pulang” (Today I Return Home), opens 4 – 25 April 2026 at Uma Seminyak and features seven works in charcoal on paper denoting her return to the art scene after a self-imposed two-year hiatus.
Born in 1998 in Seririt, Buleleng, North Bali, a graduate in fine art from UNDIKSHA University Singaraja, in 2015, Dayu was diagnosed with breast cancer. Childhood creativity developed into a passion for drawing, and by the age of fifteen, Dayu began making self-portraits. Her illness inspired her desire to understand the complexities of being. Wanting to make peace with her body, she draws it in a quest for self-exploration.
“I used to draw and paint for my mental and physical health, but gradually I fell prey to external expectations for my work. I was no longer creating art for my own pleasure, but rather striving to attract buyers, becoming conventional,” Dayu explains in her exhibition catalogue essay written by Sekar Pradnyadari.
“My work was no longer purely my own, and they indirectly placed expectations on my work. Initially, I was able to neutralise some influences and stick to my goals. My creativity wasn’t affected, and I even felt it was improving. However, when they began to cross the line and touch on my most sensitive areas (in this case, my artistic ideology), that’s when my thinking wavered, and I chose to withdraw,” Dayu said when responding to my question on how inexperienced artists are vulnerable to the negative and exploitive forces from within the art world.
An unfortunate event which caused Dayu to feel “powerless” led her to withdraw from the art scene: “From that moment on, I couldn’t draw my face or body anymore, and chose to find other things to draw that made me comfortable. I began to enter the world of digital drawing with a new identity, not showing my face at all,” she states in the catalogue essay.
A conversation with Sekar Pradnyadari and her exhibition manager, Yasmin Annissa Arsyafitri, became the catalyst to reignite her desire to exhibit. “That long discussion made me determined to return to the techniques I’ve mastered with the objects I love, so I can feel comfortable, so I can feel at home again. And to be at peace with the comments out there about my reasons and goals for my work,” Dayu said.
“Before I began drawing for this exhibition, I thought it might be my last. I deliberately used pencil as a symbol of returning to the beginning. My work always begins with pencil, and I wanted to end it there. But as I began sketching, drawing again, I felt a deep longing. It turned out I missed drawing for my original purpose—to get to know myself.”
“When the exhibition opened, just like the title of my exhibition, ‘Hari Ini Aku Kembali Pulang’ (Today I Return Home) I truly felt like I was coming home. It was like returning home after a long time, like reuniting with an old friend. After this, I decided to create again. Not for others, not to meet anyone’s expectations, but for myself.”
Six of the seven works exhibited feature two naked women with long black hair in intimate relations. “They appear to be in quiet conversation, offering affection and solace to each other. This is Dayu Sartika’s reconciliation with herself – where she now returns home to meet the self that has long been waiting at the door,” writes Sekar. “Erotica is synonymous with nudity, sensuality, and lust. For me, erotica, represented by the symbol of nudity, is linked to honesty of the heart, a depiction of true human desires,” Dayu told NOW!Bali Magazine.
‘Atua Terjerat,’ (Or trapper), 115 x 85cm, is a highlight of the exhibition. At a glance, the composition appears abstract. As the eyes focus and decipher, “surfing” the flowing outlines of curvaceous bodies with long, cascading hair, a sense of peace complements the sensual beauty. Negative spaces contrast with figurative forms, creating visual tension. This is an aesthetically compelling work.
“Hari Ini Aku Kembali Pulang” continues at Uma Seminyak until 25 April, 2026.
“Hari Ini Aku Kembali Pulang”
A solo exhibition by Dayu Sartika
4 – 25 April 2026
Uma Seminyak Bali, Indonesia
Jl Kayu Cendana no 1 , Oberoi, Seminyak.
Open daily: 9am – 9 pm.
