VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Monica Hapsari is a graphic designer who was born in Jakarta in 1983. Her work experience as an illustrator and a women’s fashion designer contributes to making her works look girly and attractive. She also pays attention to every detail in her design. Monica or familiarly known as Monic is also a vocalist of Pandai Besi group and a fashion lecturer. Monic has fallen in love with arts since she was a child and she has engaged in textile arts since 14 years ago. Monica Hapsari is known through her first illustration published on GADIS Annual Edition 2007. Monica’s work won the 7 Asia Media Award in Macau, China in the category of “the Best Design and Illustration for Magazines with More than 50,000 exemplars”. Monica then tries to enhance her experience in fashion industry by working as a stylist mode in house at a renowned fashion magazine called A+. In 2009, Monica held her first group exhibition which displayed her bead paintings at Ruang Rupa, an art gallery in Jakarta. She currently works as a freelance fashion stylist, illustrator, and visual artist. Her paintings and illustrations have been published in many prestigious magazines. For years, she has been known as a fashion illustrator who creatively combines various media and ornaments in producing her works. Her paintings are made from watercolors, charcoal, and textile materials such as fabric, button, thread, and embroidery. Monica is now renowned as one of the best pop and commercial illustrators in Indonesia. Monica Hapsari has participated in a lot of exhibitions both in Indonesia and abroad. In Monica’s perspective, the essence of art is about the way to express minds and emotions. Usually, Monic talks about her surrounding through her works. Some of her works talk about fashion, consumptive society, and other issues. According to her, one of her most outstanding works was the one ordered by a housemaid for her wedding. Actually, Monic offered to give her the painting for free, but the housemaid rejected it. The maid said that she would pay the painting in installments. It really touched Monic knowing that her works can be useful and accepted by society from various backgrounds.Although Monic learned a lot from conventional artists in developing her works, she is open to innovation.Monic uses Instagram as an innovative way to showcase her visual works so they can be enjoyed by public. In addition to being known as an illustrator, Monica is the vocalist of Pandai Besi group. Previously, Pandai Besi often performed songs that belong to an indie group named Efek Rumah Kaca because Pandai Besi was formed by the personnel of Efek Rumah Kaca. However, they began to think that it is a monotonous thing to only cover the songs of Efek Rumah Baca with the same arrangement. Therefore,as their innovation, Pandai Besi recycled Efek Rumah Kaca’s songs with their own arrangement. However, now Pandai Besi is able to compose their own songs so they can show their identity.Meanwhile, Monica Hapsari currently focuses on producing her solo album.