“My work is about bringing back the soul of a child that may have been lost.”
Heartfelt paintings reminding us it takes a village to raise a child
Indonesian artist Roby Dwi Antono is best known for his surreal and macabre portraits of manga-esque, wide-eyed children. Inspired by many pools of art history from the Renaissance to Superflat, he creates pictures that feel like a children's storybook or dark fairytale – cute and enticing, weird and grotesque. As a kid, Roby's father was a blacksmith, and he would often draw with charcoal outside his father's studio, copying characters from manga, film and TV. This animation style carried over into his adult paintings, which propelled him onto the international art scene in the mid-2010s. But...
Bio
Roby Dwi Antono (he/him) was born in 1990 in Semarang, Indonesia, and now lives and works in nearby Yogyakarta.
Exhibitions
He presented his first exhibition outside of Indonesia titled Southern Monster, Northern Child, in Manila in 2016, and has since exhibited throughout the world - from Frankfurt to Los Angeles.
At Auction
A painting titled Lonesome Hero #3 sold for $30,000 in 2021 as part of Artsy's Art Keeps Nonprofits Going IV auction, almost ten times its estimate.
