About Rubi

Born in 1990, Rubi (Patricia Rubianti) is an Indonesian artist currently based in Singapore and Jakarta. Rubi has always been fascinated by Indonesia’s natural landscapes, spiritual beliefs, and antiquities.

Her interest was cultivated during her time volunteering in Museum Nasional and as a Masters student in Cultural Materials Conservation, where she was exposed to a variety of ethnological materials, ancient folklores and mythologies. Rubi creates sketches and watercolour paintings as a way to express her sentimentality for the past and her fondness for nature and spirituality as powerful elements in human lives. 

Rubi holds a Bachelor of Visual Art and a Bachelor of Arts from Monash University, Australia. In 2019, Rubi enrolled into Master of Cultural Materials Conservation in Melbourne University, Australia, where she conducted various art conservation projects and began painting during her free time. In 2022, she withdrew from her Master’s thesis to pursue her life-long passion of drawing and painting.

Artist Statement

My works express my interests in Indonesia’s natural landscapes and antiquities, and my fondness for nature and spirituality. The works typically depict lush and highly decorated sites with ancient objects, rocks, and people (or manifestations of spirits) communing with nature and reconnecting with their ancestral pasts – scenes that aim to revive our reverence for the natural world.

I wish to create an inner sanctuary for tranquillity, slowness, and calm for those who have a sensitivity and curiosity towards art, beauty, and nature. 

I use pencil and watercolour for both simplicity and complexity; to portray intricacy and gentleness using the simplest tool, the pencil, and the gentle washes of watercolour.

The drawing process is slow, meditative, and somewhat intuitive  - putting to sleep the fast-paced, highly logical, and practical tendencies of our modern society.