With his recent exhibition at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, participation in the Venice Biennale and collaboration with Louis Vuitton, Eko Nugroho is the star artist on the Indonesian art scene. Having grown up in the period of upheaval and reform after the 1997 Asian financial crisis and post-Suharto Indonesia, he represents a new generation who never waste their freedom of expression.
His art, consisting of drawing, traditional shadow puppetry, textiles, installation, sculpture and performance, is normally embedded in local traditions and global popular culture, but marked by strong sociopolitical commentary. He also plays a key role in the local creative community, founding the comic zine Dagingtumbuh, then a similarly titled store; meanwhile, the FFR Project (Fight for Rice, in collaboration with Wedhar Riyadi) is a ‘shop’ project in Yogyakarta that allows other artists to distribute their art.
