Nadiah Bamadhaj (b. 1968, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia) resides permanently in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Trained as a sculptor in New Zealand at the Canterbury School of Fine Arts, she creates collaged drawings, sculpture, site-specific installation, digital video and print. She has lectured in Fine Arts in Kuala Lumpur, written several articles and publications on human rights in Malaysia and Indonesia, received grants from the Nippon Foundation’s Asian Public Intellectual Fellowship in 2002 and 2004, the Indonesian Directorate General of Culture and the Arts Council of New Zealand in 2022.
She is currently on the board of Yayasan Kebaya, a HIV/AIDS homeless shelter in Yogyakarta. In 2019, a survey book of 18-years of her artwork ‘Nadiah Bamadhaj’ was published by Italian-based SKIRA, and she was recently featured in ‘Vitamin D3: Today’s Best in Contemporary Drawing’ published by London-based PHAIDON. In 2023 she co-curated ARTJOG MOTIF: LAMARAN 2023, an annual arts festival based in Yogyakarta. Her artwork currently focuses on the social intricacies of life within Indonesian society. Her work is In the collection of Museum MACAN, Museum Tumurun, National Gallery of Victoria, Urban Museum Kuala Lumpur and Singapore Art Museum.