Anton Gautama, Home Sweet Home

August 1 – September 1, 2019
First Thursday opening reception: August 1, 6:00–9:00 PM
Artist talk with Anton Gautama: Saturday, August 3, 3:00 PM

Blue Sky Gallery 
122 NW 8th Avenue
Portland, Oregon 97209 USA
503-225-0210
Tuesday – Sunday, 12 – 5 pm
First Thursday 6 – 9 pm
bluesky@blueskygallery.org
http://www.blueskygallery.org/
All Blue Sky events and programs are free and open to the public.

What is a home? To many Chinese-Indonesians, home is not simply a structure—it is physical evidence of their aspirations, struggles, and love.

While photographing for his first book, Pabean Passage, Anton Gautama grew fascinated by the blend of Chinese and Indonesian cultures he found inside the homes of East Java. Born as a third-generation Chinese-Indonesian, Gautama felt the “air of familiarity” of his own upbringing reflected in front of him and he became inspired to document and explore this shared cultural heritage.

“There is a story in each frame, hopes and dreams embedded and encrypted beneath the layers of
objects that fill the space,” he says. “They tell the stories about love, opportunities, challenges, laughter, and tears of those who have called them home.”

Anton Gautama was born in 1969 in Makassar, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. He is currently based in Surabaya, where he works professionally as a documentary photographer. Gautama earned a Master’s in Business Administration from Hawaii Pacific University. His photographs have been featured in online and print magazines, including LensCulture and National Geographic. Gautama’s work has also been shown in solo exhibitions at the Goethe Institute in Jakarta, and at the Indonesian Institute of Art in Jogjakarta.