Born in Indonesia, 1981

Darbotz (b. 1981, Indonesia) is one of the most well-known—though anonymous—street artists in Indonesia. Spending most of his life living in Jakarta, the capital and metropolitan city of Indonesia has made him aware of all of its hustle and bustle. For him, the traffic jams, the chaos, and the hecticness of Jakarta must be faced every day. Through his works, he learned to accept his reality of living in an urban society like Jakarta and further explore the beauty behind the madness. He created an alter ego to face the harsh city called “cumi” (squid), a monster character that can adapt and continually evolve to its environment.

He usually uses black and white to balance out the urban setting’s festive colors coming from advertisements, billboards, neon boxes, and city lights. By using monochromatic colors, his artwork could stand out amongst the immense visual density. Recently he has experimented with primary or vibrant colors to reflect objects familiar with the streets, such as orange resembling traffic cones or red, blue, and green that is also used for street signs.

Darbotz assumes that his patterns applied on the streets or conventional mediums such as canvas and paper are the same—energy expended, the ideas presented, as well as the techniques applied. However, each has different challenges and experiences for him. While canvas or paper have smaller surfaces to respond to, they are generally more comfortable to do. On the street there is no space limit, we can smell the sense on the street, pollution, wind, traffic jams, and the sound of cars passing by.