Noviadi Angkasapura

*1979, Indonesia

Noviadi Angkasapura was born in Jayapura, in the province of Irian Jaya, on the Pacific island of New Guinea. Since 1963, the western part of New Guinea has belonged to Indonesia. Noviadi Angkasapura has lived in Jakarta since 2009, with his wife and their two children.

He was already drawing regularly as a child. Noviadi Angkasapura is an autodidact and has had no formal artistic training.

When he was 24, a spirit appeared to him, and gave him the title “Ki Raden Sastro Inggil”, advocating a life of honesty and patience. Although he was not asleep at the time, Noviadi Angkasapura described this apparition as a dream. The title “Ki Raden Sastro Inggil” appears on many of his drawings, serving as an additional form of signature alongside his own handwritten one.

Following this encounter, Noviadi Angkasapura’s urge to create artistic work became greater and more intense. The regular act of drawing gives him the opportunity to channel supernatural powers and to convey the message given to him by this spirit. This can be understood as a mission to improve the world. Drawing is also an act of meditation and prayer for him, as part of his Muslim faith. He came up with the idea of creating his own museum, which he calls the Museum of Art Angkasapura – Raden Sastro Inggil. This museum could contain a million works. He intends to dedicate the museum to his family, in the conviction that their ancestors were worthy role models, building on commitment and the inner values of being honest and patient.

His drawings have a mystic quality; they are richly colourful and include enigmatic figures and symbols. These densely detailed works are drawn with ballpoint pen, ink, pencil, coloured pencils and oil pastels, usually on found paper or cardboard. While they seem to be inspired by traditional mythological elements of the culture in which he lives, his works are characterised by a very distinctive artistic style. 

Noviadi Angkasapura is represented by the Henry Boxer Gallery in the United Kingdom and the Cavin-Morris Gallery in New York. Cavin-Morris published a catalogue of Angkasapura’s work and exhibited some of his pieces for the first time at the Outsider Art Fair in Paris in 2013. Works by Noviadi Angkasapura can be seen in places such as the Collection de l'Art Brut in Lausanne, the abcd / ART BRUT Collection Bruno Decharme in France, Elmar R. Gruber’s Collection of Mediumistic Art (CoMA) in Germany and Eric Moinat’s Collection in Vienna. As of 2021, Noviadi Angkasapura has also been represented in the 921 works of the “Donation d’Art Brut de Bruno Decharme” at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Selected works