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About the artwork
In “The Winner,” Adi Gunawan’s character, dressed in boxing gear, is sitting atop a bull. Even though professional bull riding is a fierce and gruelling sport that involves great strength and stamina - Adi shows the figure emerging triumphant, exuberant as he lifts both arms in the air in victory. Influenced both by the artist’s personal love for boxing and his childhood growing up in agrarian Java, this joyful scene of a man riding atop a smiling bull illustrates the close connection that man and animal have - man does not need to control animals, but rather, they can co-exist peacefully and in harmony.
About the artist
Adi was born in Yogyakarta in 1974, Indonesia and received his education at Institut Seni Indonesia, Yogyakarta. In his symbolic sculptures, Adi invokes euphoria and the significance of animals in his work due to his cultural background of growing up in an agrarian society. He uses his cultural positioning as a tool to visualize motions, gestures, characters and expressions of various subjects that he sculpts. He then conveys constructed meaning which, in and through his forms, figures and compositions, puts forth the issue of a mystical relationship between animals and humans. Adi’s highest accolade thus far was representing Indonesia at the Beijing Olympics 2008 Fine Arts Exhibition, where he was bestowed the further honor of an Olympic Torch Award. His sculpture toured Hong Kong, the United States, the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland and many other countries.