From June 5 to 11, 2025, Galerie La Petite Semaine in Paris hosts Intimacy Issues, the first solo exhibition in Europe by Indonesian artist Miranda Pranoto. Promoted by MINERVA – an association founded to support emerging female artists in the contemporary visual arts scene – the exhibition represents the first step of an ambitious journey undertaken by the two founders, Francesca Rozzi and Sveva Saglimbeni. Pranoto’s pictorial practice, while rooted in autobiographical experience, opens up to a collective and current reflection on the body, especially the female one, and the perception of self. Born and raised in Jakarta in a cultural context marked by strict religious and social norms, the artist has found in painting a space for affirmation and resistance, where her own body is broken down, recomposed, analyzed, exposed without fear of being judged.
Miranda Pranoto, “I can’t stop thinking it’s a fetus”, 2023, charcoal on canvas, 95 x 97 cm, courtesy of the artist
The selected works oscillate between figuration and abstraction, between maniacal control and liberating gesture. In canvases like Concealed (Self-portrait) (2023), Pranoto stages eating disorders, dissatisfaction with her physical appearance, and the confrontation with her worst enemy: the mirror, which becomes a contested territory between her and her painting. Here, the artist attempts to free herself from fears and rebuild a healthy relationship with herself. Abstraction, in this case, becomes a cathartic process through which the artist frees herself from the discomfort related to her own image. Tell my therapist I never read this book (2023) is an emblematic work, in which the artist portrays herself on what appears to be a book cover, in an attempt to unite multiple artistic languages, using words to guide the viewer through the narrative. The artist herself describes it this way: «It was an important work for me, my last at the RCA. I was looking for a balance between abstraction and figuration, and a way to make both coexist on the same surface. I was making fun of myself, but consciously, integrating a screenshot of a book that my therapist had sent me – it’s called Self-Compassion, but I’ve never read it».
Miranda Pranoto, “Tell my therapist I never read this book”, 2023, oil, pastel and inkjet paper on canvas, 130 x 180 cm, courtesy of the artist
What strikes one is the simplicity with which the artist addresses often stigmatized themes, starting from self-narration to arrive at a political claim: the need to make her voice heard and respected, without letting herself be defined by anyone else. Her language draws on contemporary visual codes such as those related to photography and social media – tools that the artist critically reinvents. The female body, hyper-visible in global visual communication, becomes in her work both a battlefield and a place of care. Intimacy Issues is not just an exhibition, but an act of awareness. Despite the battles undertaken to reach the point where we are today, the female world still seems to have to fight for stereotypes to be abandoned and the idea that women’s bodies are collective property.
Miranda Pranoto, “Benefits supervisor napping”, 2023, oil on canvas, 50 x 50 cm, courtesy of the artist
Through Miranda’s work – as well as that of many of her colleagues, starting with great artists like Tracey Emin, whom she herself indicates as a reference – and thanks to the commitment of young curators who share these ideals, the art world continues to propose itself as a space where one can speak openly, and without fear, about themes still considered uncomfortable today. In a society that too often imposes aesthetic canons around the female body, Miranda Pranoto’s art asserts itself as an act of individual resistance. The exhibition presents itself as an invitation to reconsider intimacy not as a private refuge, but as a space for public expression, dissent, and reappropriation.
Felicienne Lauro
Info:
Miranda Pranoto. Intimacy Issues
curated by Francesca Rozzi
Galerie La Petite Semaine
25 Rue Chanzy, 75011 Parigi
5–11/06/2025
Opening: Thursday, June 5, 6–10 PM
https://www.instagram.com/la_petite_semaine/
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