Meet Your Artist: Heri Dono

Heri Dono’s art practice emerged from his training in Wayang, a form of Indonesian puppetry that evolved from the spread of Hindu mythology and Tholu Bommalata storytelling from Southern India. The humor, folk elements, and characters present in the works expand beyond the conventional pretexts for Euro-American visual art, as his interdisciplinary foregrounding of music, storytelling, and commentary on sociopolitical issues provide a starting point for viewers to interpret his work from diverse backgrounds and geographic origins. 'Smiling Angels from the Sky' is an installation of hanging sculptures, with ten “angels” who don pleasant, enthusiastic faces and resemble toy airplanes. Dono presents the angel as a universal symbol of hope for the future that isn’t tethered to any singular tradition or religion, and can therefore be appreciated by any who comes across their winged forms.