Surya Wirawan (Yoyok)

Surya Wirawan (Yoyok)

Surya Wirawan (nicknamed Yoyok) was born in 1973 in Mojokerto in East Java. His childhood love of drawing led him to sit for the entrance exam for the Indonesian Institute of Art (ISI), Yogyakarta in 1991. The supervising teacher still remembers Yoyok’s radical approach of placing the paper vertically, not horizontal, describing him as a phenomenon. He spent nine years at ISI mastering the techniques of woodcut, linocut and etching, and portrait drawing and watercolour painting. His slow, meticulous approach was noted by other students, who added a second word to his nickname - Komo, from the komodo dragon, a creature slow and considered but full of intent. 

In 1998 Yoyok Joined the arts and culture collective Taring Padi, along with Mohamad ‘Ucup’ Yusuf and Setu Legi (Hestu Nugroho). They work with communities to give them a voice and raise awareness of social issues, using relief prints made collectively and pasted up in city streets. From 2001 Yoyok produced more personal work. He adopted the comic strip format to develop narratives often peopled with figures that echoed Petruk Gareng characters, the lead male figures in traditional Javanese puppetry, or wayang. 

Yoyok was included in the Jogja Biennale 2009, ArtJog 2014 and Jakarta Biennale 2015. He has had two solo exhibitions both in Yogyakarta - at Kedai Kebun in 2008 and Climen at Jogja Contemporary in 2012. Climen was an acronym for “Cilik-cilik yo men”, a Javanese saying for “Just fine, albeit small” - a true but typically understated description of this physically diminutive artist and his humble but perfect work.

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