Eko Nugroho | My Wonderful Dream (2017)

In his work, 'My Wonderful Dream', artist Eko Nugroho imagines lands without borders – where fantastical characters float freely across islands and continents, and where people recognise the similarities rather than differences within each culture. 'My Wonderful Dream' suggests that life would be beautiful if we lived in peace, happiness, tolerance, and togetherness, but it also ponders the reality of humanity’s complex psyche. With our yearning for advancement, and with the pressures of rapid change introduced by globalisation and technology, is a harmonious world achievable or is it just a dream?

Image rights: Collection of the Artist

About Eko Nugroho

Among the “2000 Generation” of Indonesian contemporary artists, who came of age artistically in the tumultuous and creative period after the downfall of President Haji Muhammad Suharto, Eko Nugroho makes art for and of the people, based in the street and on his own experiences, and exploring the often absurd condition of being human. As he describes, political and social criticism is at the heart of his subtly subversive output: “In Indonesia the political situation is getting better, but there's still a lot of narrow-mindedness and social pressure, and that's exactly what I'm critical of in my work.” Nugroho’s early experience as a street artist is evidenced in the graphic punch of his public murals, paintings, drawings, installations, animation, and embroidery, populated by cartoonish figures with masked faces, who dissemble, posture, argue, and struggle—like the human beings they represent.

Indonesian, b. 1977, Yogyakarta, Indonesia