Aly Waffa

Aly Waffa (b. 1983, Gresik, Indonesia) is an Indonesian painter whose practice centres on the recurring motif of roots — a visual and philosophical symbol of strength, memory, and the unseen foundations of life. A Fine Arts graduate of the Indonesian Institute of the Arts (ISI) Yogyakarta, Waffa has developed a distinctive language that merges technical precision with an intuitive, almost archaeological approach to texture and form.

In his paintings, roots become more than organic structures; they are metaphors for human endurance, growth, and belonging. Small narrative details emerge within the surface — fragments of objects, traces of daily life, and characters inspired by the limestone miners of his native Gresik, whose labour and resilience deeply inform his imagery. Using his signature scratch technique in oil painting, Waffa excavates the canvas to reveal layers of emotion and material memory, as if unearthing the stories buried within the earth itself.

Waffa’s art, exhibited extensively across Indonesia and Southeast Asia — from the National Gallery of Indonesia to Sangkring Art Space — embodies a visual meditation on grounding and transformation, where the human spirit, like the root, endures beneath shifting soil.