A Day in the Life: Roby Dwi Antono
Pop surrealism and ‘GENERATIO: CYCLUS VITAE’ at ARTJOG 2026
A Day in the Life is a series by A&M where we invite practitioners to share a day in their life.
Roby Dwi Antono.
Roby Dwi Antono is a Yogyakarta-based pop surrealist artist working across painting and sculpture. His paintings often feature child-like figures and hybrid creatures in dreamlike settings. Roby has held solo exhibitions at Almine Rech in Brussels (2023), London (2024) and Paris (2025) as well as at Nanzuka Underground in Tokyo (2024). He was commissioned by ARTJOG 2026 to present the installation GENERATIO: CYCLUS VITAE at the Jogja National Museum.
In this edition of A Day in the Life, Roby shares the process of making GENERATIO: CYCLUS VITAE and reflects on how becoming a father has changed the questions he asks in his work.
Installation view of GENERATIO: CYCLUS VITAE at ARTJOG 2026. Photo by Ariyanto Nugroho. Image courtesy of artist.
The body of work I am presenting for ARTJOG this year is titled GENERATIO: CYCLUS VITAE. It begins with a simple question: What is it that we pass from one generation to the next? Is it only our faces and bodies, or do we also inherit lived experiences, ways of thinking, fears, hopes, wounds and dreams?
This idea emerged from my own personal experience. I was born in Ambarawa in 1990 and raised in a rural village. I witnessed the transition from a slower, nature-centered life to a rapidly evolving digital world. This has inspired my ongoing exploration of transformation, mutation and shifting identities.
ARTJOG 2026 facade. Image courtesy of artist.
Becoming a father reshaped my understanding of inheritance. Visitors encounter a terracotta facade with a narrow slit emitting fetal heartbeats recorded from friends expecting children, alongside my wife. Terracotta evokes earth, body and time, while these real heartbeats embody life’s continuity, connecting generations through birth, memory and shared experience.
Installation view of GENERATIO: CYCLUS VITAE at ARTJOG 2026. Photo by Moza Alatta. Image courtesy of artist.
Passing through the facade, visitors enter a collective womb inhabited by hybrid figures that recall human bodies, aliens, animals and organs. These shifting forms reflect fluid identities and the unfamiliarity between generations. Though connected by blood, our different lived experiences often make us feel as if we inhabit separate worlds.
Roby Dwi Antono, Generatio Continua, 2026, installation, 200 x 180 x 190cm. Image courtesy of the artist.
The journey concludes with a monumental head of three overlapping faces, symbolising the many selves each person carries: past, present and future. Forms emerging from the head evoke memory, trauma, hope and inherited experiences, reflecting the continuous transmission of identity and human experience across generations.
Roby Dwi Antono in his studio. Image courtesy of the artist.
Ultimately, I hope visitors leave not with answers but with reflection. We are all shaped by those before us, while simultaneously shaping those who follow. As both children and future ancestors, we continuously inherit, transform and pass on memories, values, experiences and ways of understanding the world.
