New Artist Spotlight: Roby Dwi Antono at Almine Rech
Portrait of Roy Dwi Antono by Moza Alatta. Courtesy of the artist and Almine Rech.
“New Artist Spotlight” is a recurring editorial series featuring artists who have recently joined the rosters of Artsy’s gallery partners.
Indonesian artist Roby Dwi Antono is known for his images of children with giant eyes, which have been exhibited in solo shows internationally. His latest works, however, depict creatures with no eyes at all. On view in a new exhibition, “YANG ASING ITU (THAT PECULIAR..)” at Almine Rech in Brussels (open through April 8th), these 27 works on canvas and paper portray strange yet unthreatening monsters that evoke serenity and balance. The gallery has also recently announced representation of the artist.
Inspired by the kaiju monsters of Japanese sci-fi, like Godzilla and Ultraman, Antono brings his sensitive painterly eye to these creatures. In the painting We Are There Together (2022), for instance, soft colors create a dreamlike space where bulbous, humanoid characters appear to welcome the viewer into their group with open arms. Reminiscent of the aesthetic symmetry of butterflies, these sci-fi characters suggest a strange crowd: simultaneously wise and innocent, elderly and youthful.
This fusing of the fantastical and the childlike gives Antono’s new work a surrealistic edge—part of what he calls the “Pop Surrealism” of his work (a term coined by another artist on Almine Rech’s roster, Kenny Scharf). “Roby Dwi Antono’s work is part of this artistic lineage, revisiting Pop Surrealism in the current generation, and thus finds its natural place in our program alongside Javier Calleja and César Piette, whom we represent and who are connected to this movement,” said Almine Rech.
