Studied at the school of fine art in Denpasar and The Indonesian Academy of Fine Art in Yogyakarta. Before completing the programme, however, he went to Brussels, Belgium. For several years he worked and visited museums and galleries there, then returned to Indonesia in 1972. He has participated in many group and solo exhibitions in Indonesia and abroad, including the Venice Biennale in 2003, and Mike Weiss Gallery in New York, USA in 2005. His artistry has been documented in the books Made Wianta (1990), Made Wianta : Universal Balinese Artist (1999), Made Wianta : Art and Peace (2000), and Wild Dogs in Bali : The Art of Made Wianta (2005).
During his early career, Wianta studied the Balinese classical wayang style of painting from master artists in Kamasan, Klungkung. His drawings of Balinese spirits and creatures has novel, peculiar and personalized shapes. When he used colours, the works were similar in structure to his drawings but did not have figurative elements. Instead, he began painting in a kind of abstraction that systematically used small dots of colour with a mixture of linear contours and flat surfaces. Then he went on to create geometrical constructions that combined spontaneous calligraphic strokes. His work is represented in the collection of The Neka Museum in Ubud Bali. He also does installations and performance art to convey his concerns about social and cultural change.