Goenawan Mohamad (b. 1941) embarked on his artistic pursuit with an exhibition of sketches titled Petikan (the Excerpts) in the Plataran Djoko Pekik in Sembungan, Kasihan, Bantul, Yogyakarta, 11-25 November 2016.

Since then, his artistic pursuits have developed with an astonishing intensity and productivity in creating works and exhibitions. In 2017-2018, for example, he held five solo exhibitions (four in Jakarta and one in Yogyakarta), featuring no less than one hundred and fifty sketches, drawings, and paintings.

All of them show his effort in “trying out images” with serious basic exercises with colored pencils, pens, inks, and acrylics on paper and canvas to “rediscover” the form of objects and living creatures, small moments, memories of journeys, encounters with words and readings, poetry in images, images in poems, and responses to a figure.

This effort made him realize that “images are a visual energy” that is “a joy of its own”, “a pleasure of its own”, and “a passion of its own”, because “there is always the unforeseen”, because “imagination is never finished”.

With that awareness, Goenawan Mohamad continued his artistic search by exploring other media and different working methods such as oil painting, charcoal drawings, and printmaking which he created in Pasar Minggu, Jakarta, Bangunjiwo, Bantul, Yogyakarta, and Ubud, Bali.

What has enabled this recipient of the Japan Foundation Award (2022) to continue creating and exhibiting art over the past nine years is the existential awareness that “every work is a step in a search” that “is never finished—or finished by those who see it.”

That convinced Goenawan Mohamad to give the title Mencari Lagi… (In Search Again…) for his solo exhibition at Srisasanti Gallery, Tirtodipuran Link Building B, Yogyakarta. This exhibition—his eighteenth solo exhibition—displays 59 works of art (19 paintings, 25 drawings, 11 gumoil prints, 3 etchings, and 1 object installation) made around 2017-2025.

With this belief, it is understandable that there is “a striking change in his visual expression”. For example, among the fourteen oil paintings displayed on the gallery’s second floor, “a new tendency is apparent—leans more towards abstract expressionism”. This confirms that “from the beginning, he was never been comfortable with what was called ‘realism’.”

But, as seen in the many sketches, drawings, and gumoil prints on the first floor of this gallery, “even now he has no intention of abandoning ‘figurative art.’” This author of fifteen volumes of Catatan Pinggir ‘’rejects the distinction between ‘figurative’ and ‘abstract.’’

Thus, Goenawan Mohamad's works of art "showcase continuous change, also in medium".