Valentine Willie Fine Art is delighted to present Indonesian artist Popok Tri Wahyudi who will be showcasing a series of works with stories about commuting, travelling, human mobility and migration in his first Malaysian solo exhibition, BERGERak.

Presented in a wide range of media, from paintings and drawings to woodblock prints, silkscreen on canvas and mini sculptures, these bittersweet and sometimes macabre narratives negate the glamorous images of the jet set that one may associate with travel ¬–when people wined and dined and slept on bunk beds and were charmed by the allure of flight stewardess. Instead, his work narrates the grittier realities of travelling ‘cattle class’, locally and internationally, in the 21st Century, particularly in the context of Southeast Asia.

Popok’s vivid colours, simple forms and comic style compositions are powerful storytelling devices that can be easily accessed by his audience and his comic inspired work is very much rooted in the everyday. They address the socio-political issues of Indonesia’s charged environment through social satires and an inimitable brand of ‘Jogja comic style’, characterised by thick black outlines and bright bursts of colours, stylised depictions of human figures against part dystopian part science-fiction settings.