Idas Losin

Idas Losin, of Truku and Atayal descent, grew up immersed in her community’s cultural milieu. She graduated from the Department of Fine Arts at Taipei National University of the Arts, beginning her art career in 2001. Proficient primarily in oil painting, her works combine strong autobiographical elements with concern for land and environment, successfully integrating Indigenous symbols with contemporary artistic language to create images representing contemporary Indigenous presence. She transforms elders’ life experiences, ethnic histories, and cultural norms into painting themes that express ethnic identity and life philosophy. She especially focuses on cultural elements such as Ptasan (facial tattooing), Tminun (weaving), and Gaga/Gaya (tribal laws), using the “text” conveyed by weaving patterns as a creative inspiration. She reinterprets these traditional motifs through painting as an artistic language for exploring self and cultural connection. Her distinctive style features bold, pure, and vivid colors—such as the reds of the Atayal, the whites of the Truku, and the dark tones evoking nature’s night and ocean—drawing viewers into the spiritual cycle and contemporary vitality of Austronesian cultures. In 2012, her work The Symmetry of Body and Soul juxtaposed figurative modern objects with abstract weaving patterns, expressing the interplay between tradition and modernity, as well as between reality and illusion. Since 2013, Idas has continuously advanced her “Island-Hopping” project, traveling to multiple Austronesian island communities throughout the Pacific—including New Zealand, Tahiti, Hawaii, and Guam—broadening her understanding of Austronesian cultures and colonial histories from an international perspective, further

highlighting the cross-cultural dialogue and global themes in her work. She won the Pulima Art Award Grand Prize and has exhibited at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, the Museum of Contemporary Art, as well as internationally in Australia, France, the United States, and participated in significant events such as the Asia Pacific Triennial in Brisbane and the Sydney Biennale, demonstrating her influence on the global art stage.