Kei Kusuma

Kei Kusuma (b. 1990) is a graphic artist based in Surabaya, Indonesia. He has been making art from a very early age, and started exhibiting his works internationally at the age of 19. Kusuma's works symbolise the beauty and complexity of life at it purest forms, incorporating various emotions with certain motifs and themes. From his point of view, women are the perfect symbolic representation of both the beauty and complex qualities in life. Women are always associated with beauty, sensuality, fragility, birth of new life, affection, etc, while in some other way, women also closely related to themes of death, temptation, disappointment, decaying of youth, and sin. Kusuma finds that the contradictory qualities are extremely interesting and gives him inspiration in creating most of his works.

Kusuma's works were created with an idea that there is always a glimpse of beauty in our surroundings, which is represented by the interaction between female and male characters, and there are also impulsive desires and aggressive sensuality which are represented by other characters and objects in his works. Rather than try to dissect each other, it was perceived as an entirety. Creating contradictory imagery which complement each others' aspects.

In 2016, Kusuma's artwork (The spoiled ram) received an award as best in show artwork from Sin City Gallery. In 2017, his first solo exhibition, ULTRABLACK was successfully organized by Sin City Gallery in Las Vegas, Nevada.