Some Like It Hot : Sinta Tantra

25 January - 8 March

Sinta Tantra
Some Like It Hot
Sinta Tantra

Sinta Tantra (b. 1979, New York) is a British artist of Balinese descent. She studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London between 1999–2003 and later continued her studies in art at the Royal Academy Schools in London, graduating in 2006. Tantra describes herself as a painter working on an architectural scale. By using abstract geometric style, exploring colour, identity, and narratives, she questions the function of spaces in her work. Sinta Tantra is highly regarded for her site-specific murals and installations in the public realm.

Solo exhibitions include (Upcoming) Some Like It Hot, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Palm Beach, Florida, USA (2025); The Light Club of Batavia, Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery, London, UK (2024); Shrines of Gaeity, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London, UK (2023); All You Could Hear, Richard Koh Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand (2023); Art Singapore, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Singapore (2023); Constellations of Being, ISA Gallery, Jakarta, Indonesia (2022); On Being Blue; Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Nevlunghavn, Norway (2022); Birds of Paradise, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Berlin, Germany (2021); Modern Times, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London, UK (2020); A House in Bali, ISA Gallery, Jakarta, Indonesia (2017); Fantastic / Chromatic, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London, UK (2015) Essence of a Thing, House of St. Barnabas, London, UK (2005); Dynamic, Maximum, Tension, Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool, UK (2011); Politics of Seduction, Stanley Picker Gallery, Kingston University, London, UK (2010).
- Group exhibitions include (Upcoming) Shadow and Void: Buddha10, ESEA Contemporary, Manchester, UK (2025); Small is Beautiful XLII, Flowers Gallery, London, UK (2024); The Geometry of Abstraction, Paul Smith, No9 Albemarle Street, London, UK (2024); Fates and Furies, Appetite, Singapore (2024); The 2024 Sovereign Asian Art Prize Finalists Exhibition, 9/F, Hong Kong (2024); By The Means at Hand, Pavillion of Croatia 60^th Biennale di Venezia, Italy (2024); Expo Chicago, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Chicago, USA (2024); Art Moments Jakarta, Sheraton Grand Jakarta, Gandaria City, Jakarta, Indonesia (2023); Where the Wild Roses Grow, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Schloss Görne, Germany (2023); KIWARI: Narasi Identitas dan Kefanaan, Tumurun Museum, Surakarta, Indonesia (2023); Women Group Show, ISA Gallery, Jakarta, Indonesia (2023); Sua Kuasa Matra, ISA Gallery, Jakarta, Indonesia (2023); Art Jakarta Gardens, ISA Gallery, Jakarta, Indonesia (2023); A New Paradise, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK (2022); Small is Beautiful: 40^th Edition, Flowers Gallery London, UK (2022); Y: Collect 3.0, Ruci Art Space, Jakarta, Indonesia (2019); Karachi Biennial, Pakistan (2019); Small is Beautiful, Flowers Gallery, London, UK (2018); London Graphic, Thameside Studios, London UK (2018); Hornby Tantra, Works III, Broadgate, London, UK (2018); Voyage to Indonesia, The World Bank, Washington DC, USA (2018); High Noon, Accademia Belle Arti di Rome, Rome, Italy (2017); Changing Perspective, Jogja National Museum, Yogyakarta (2017); London (2017); Lost and Found: Place, Space; Identity, the World Trade Centre, Jakarta, Indonesia (2016); among more.
  
  Highlights and collections
  Sinta Tantra's artworks can be found in international private and public collections, including Government Art Collection UK; Louis Vuitton Collection Southeast Asia; Karachi Biennale; Benetton Collection; Folkestone Triennial, Canary Wharf; Tumurun Museum, Indonesia; Museum MACAN, Indonesia. In 2024, Tantra was nominated for the Sovereign Asian Art Prize. Tantra is a recipient of many awards including the Bridget Riley Drawing Fellow at The British School at Rome (2017); Shortlisted for the Jerwood Contemporary Painting Prize (2015); British Council’s International Development Award (2014); First Prize, Painting and Decorating Industry Award (2012);The Royal British Society of Sculptors AHRBS (2012); British Council Grant (2009); Courvoisir ‘The Future 500’ in partnership with The Observer Newspaper (2009); Arts Council England (2007); and Deutsche Bank Award (2006), Paul Smith Scholarship at the Royal Academy of Arts (2003-2006) and the Henry Moore Sculpture Fund (2002).
- Public commissions include: Sunset Ombre, One Satrio, Mega Kunigan, Jakarta, Indonesia (2022); Pink Moon Rising, Seolhaewon, Gangwon-Do, South Korea (2021); Temple of Flora, Ocean Flower Island, Hainan (2021); Illuminated, 22 Bishopsgate, London commissioned by Contemporary Art Society, UK (2021); The Grand Tour, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, UK (2020); The Crossing Mount Daemo, The H Honor Hills, Seoul commissioned by Hyundai, South Korea (2021); Poins Square, Jakarta, Indonesia (2020); Horizon to Horizon, Sharjah Islamic Arts Festival, Sharjah (2019); Bright Dawn, Karachi Biennale, Karachi (2019); Compose Motions and Tasted Flight, Honer Hills, Seoul commissioned by Hyundai, South Korea (2019); Sunset in Tanah Lot, Facebook, London, UK (2018); Collaboration with Nick Hornby, Broadgate sites, London, UK (2018); In the Mood for Love, Lee Tung Avenue, Hong Kong (2018); Paintworks, commissioned by Crest Nicholson, Bristol, UK (2018); 1947, Folkestone Triennial, Folkestone (2017); Pailo Drappallone, Commune di Siena, Italy (2017); Diamond Minutes, Hana Bank, Incheon, South Korea (2017); The Sound of Colour, St. Paul’s Way Medical Centre, London, UK (2017); A Union in Partition, private commission, London, UK (2016); A Means of Liberation, Newnham College, Cambridge University, UK (2016); Songdo, South Korean Government, South Korea (2015); Sensory Garden, Bristol Royal Infirmary Hospital, Bristol, UK (2015); The Eccentricity of Zero, Royal British Society Sculptors, London, UK (2015); Greater Reality of Elsewhere, Locwus International, Swansea, UK (2015); The Eccentricity of Zero, Royal British Society of Sculptors, Holland Park, London, UK (2013); Together Yet Forever Apart, Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool, UK (2012); A Beautiful Sunset Mistaken For a Dawn, Canary Wharf, London, UK (2012); A Good Time and a Half!, Southbank Centre, London, UK (2007). Neon Tetra, CreateKX, Camley Street Natural Park, London, UK (2007); Isokon Dreams, London Borough of Camden, Regents Park Bridge, London, UK (2007); Line Up, Platform for Art, Piccadily Tube Station, London, UK (2007); Emporia, London Fashion Week’s On|Off, 6 Burlington Gardens, London, UK (2006); Party Surprise, Christchurch University, Canterbury, UK (2006); Tantra’s most notable public work includes a 300-metre long painted bridge commissioned for the 2012 Olympics, Canary Wharf, London, UK.
Some Like It Hot

Vivid pink and blue forms stretch, float, and leap through space beneath golden orbs, like glittering moons. Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, West Palm Beach is delighted to present Some Like It Hot, a solo exhibition by British-Balinese artist Sinta Tantra. Tantra transforms each of her exhibitions into a large-scale installation, where the works respond not only to one another but to the gallery’s light and space, creating shifting moods and perspectives throughout the day. For this, her seventh solo exhibition at the gallery, Tantra draws inspiration from Marilyn Monroe’s 1959 film, using it as a springboard to explore themes of play, performance, and identity.

Tantra’s compositions use repetitive forms that are reimagined in different configurations as if visualising thought processes, feelings or memories. In this exhibition, almost all of the paintings appear in pairs. While the compositions themselves remain identical – blending organic and geometric shapes – the color palettes contrast: one rendered in vibrant hues of pink and purple that are traditionally associated with femininity and the other in deep shades of blue that represent a more masculine energy. We could also interpret them as representing different temporalities – day and night – different emotions or states of mind – present and introspective. By hanging the paintings alongside one another or opposite, Tantra encourages us not just to view them in dialogue, but as alternative versions of the same the whole.
The use of doubling in this show is inspired by the film’s playful exploration of gender roles and mistaken identities – when the characters Joe (Tony Curtis) and Jerry (Jack Lemmon) disguise themselves as women to join an all-female band. It also resonates with Tantra’s own complex relationship with her identity as a woman who identifies with and embodies multiple cultures. We can imagine holding them as objects, the way they might feel against our skin. They also evoke the idea of costumes or masks, inviting us to explore or ‘try on’ different ways of being. ‘Some Like It Hot was ahead of its time in terms of talking about gender and sexuality in a very entertaining and accessible way. The film is really about the freedom and creativity that comes from fluidity,’ says Tantra.

At times, Tantra’s forms are reminiscent of figures, arched and soaring through space, while at others they evoke tropical flowers connecting to her Balinese roots and the climate of Florida as well to traditional portrayals of femininity. Meanwhile, the circular shapes that appear at varying scales are a recurring motif in Tantra’s work, referencing the Balinese lunar calendar and meditation practices. Rendered in gold leaf, some circles seem to draw on mythological ideas of transformation that occur in moonlight while also playing on ideas around vanity and reflection. Other circles, left in raw canvas, offer a pause, space to breathe within the density and clamour of colour. Stripped back to bare material in which we can glimpse the warp and weave of the linen, they seem to capture a feeling of vulnerability, the essence of self that lingers beneath our performances and grounds us.

In this way, the exhibition transforms the gallery into more than just a space for viewing art, it becomes a platform for experimentation, self-reflection, and play.
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Some Like It Hot : Sinta Tantra

Sinta Tantra

Sinta Tantra

Some Like It Hot

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