Nurrachmat Widyasena

Nurrachmat Widyasena, or popularly known as Ito, is an Indonesian artist, printmaker, illustrator, and designer whose works reflect on the idealized future of humanity and civilization through popular imagery. He studied printmaking at Institut Teknologi Bandung and graduated in 2013. His interest towards comic books and Japanese manga has led to his fascination towards science-fiction, space exploration.

Ito’s idea of space exploration refers to the Space Age that emerged in the late 1950s amidst the Cold War, which saw the rapid acceleration of technological advance and engineering marvels, marking a new era of human civilization. It represents the epitome of modernity of the 20th century. Ito borrows the visual language of science-fiction, satirizing the reality of our today’s, which is far from the promise of the Space Age, society while remaining hopeful at the same time. His interest towards science-fiction has led him to further explore the realm of theoretical physics, including quantum physics and string theories. In his 2019 solo exhibition titled “Nostaljik Kritik: Operasi Taimket”, Ito began to turn from figurative and fictional characters, into abstracted form of metal sculptures and reliefs, which were based on these theory in physics. This marks a shift in his subjects from fantasy into reality.