The wide-eyed little children in Roby Dwi Antono’s dreamy paintings have captured the hearts and wallets of a new generation of collectors around the world in recent years. Again and again, the Indonesian artist’s auction record has been reset, and his soaring popularity has taken him beyond Asia, with gallery shows in Los Angeles, Brussels, and London.

“We have seen an increasing interest in Roby’s work since the pandemic, a moment which also seemed to trigger a growing appetite from Asian collectors for works with an artistic language deeply rooted within their generation,” said Florence Ho, head of day and online sales for contemporary art at Sotheby’s in Asia.

The surge in Antono’s market, especially after his first show with Almine Rech in Brussels, may help to boost the interest in other artists from Southeast Asia, who have long been had difficulty gaining attention beyond the region, noted Angela Tian, head of the New Now sale at Phillips Hong Kong. It also revealed the growing power of young collectors globally, who are eager to support artists their age. Tian said that buyers come from not just across Asia but also the U.S., and most are between 30 and 50 years old.

However, prices for Antono’s work have slipped a bit of late, alongside those of other artists in the ultra-contemporary category. “We have started to see some correction in the ultra-contemporary market since last year, which is ultimately healthy for artists and collectors as it puts things on a more sustainable footing,” said Federica Bonacasa, the founder of London’s FB Art Consulting Ltd.

Roby Dwi Antono, Asih (2019). Image credit: Christie’s Images Ltd. 2024.

Who Is He?

Antono, who is self-taught, is based in Yogyakarta, one of Indonesia’s most vibrant cultural centers. Trained in graphic design, he moved to the area with the plan of becoming an illustrator. However, a turning point arrived in 2012 when a friend offered him a solo exhibition at a local art space. Since then, Antono has devoted himself to art, and is something of an Instagram celebrity, with more than 124,000 followers.

“Pop surrealism” is how the artist categorizes his art, which has often been compared to that of artists like Yoshitomo Nara or Javier Calleja. His boosters argue that his practice is about more than imitation.

“My works contain a set of idioms that are very personal to me,” Antono has said. “My works are like a mirror in which I see a reflection of myself. Very often it is where I would criticize the undoing of my past self as well as import some hopes to my future self.”

Along with his trademark little children, his paintings are populated by pop-culture icons, mythological creatures, panoramic natural landscapes, and dreamlike scenes.

Sotheby’s Ho linked the artist’s motifs to the phenomenon of “kawaii pop,” which can also be found in animation, manga, and e-sports.

Antono’s style has also changed over time, she said. “Roby incorporates these identifiable traits within his works too, and by doing so, his canvases embody a sense of nostalgia, which has become increasingly desirable among collectors.”

Roby Dwi Antono, Semburat Urat (2020). Image courtesy Sotheby’s.

A Favorite of Flippers? Here’s What the Data Says

Sales in the secondary market show how desirable Antono’s works have become. While there are few auction records for him in the Artnet Price Database before 2021, his total sales value began to take off that year, reaching $595,176. It peaked in 2022 at $2.5 million, when an artist record of HK$2.5 million ($321,039) was set in at Christie’s Hong Kong for the canvas Asih (2019)—260 percent above its presale estimate. (Sales prices include buyer’s premium; estimates do not.)

Antono’s top mark record was previously held by Muram Temaramo (2013), which went for HK$2.4 million ($306,954) at a Phillips Hong Kong sale in association with Poly Auction in 2021. That was an astonishing 858 percent above its presale estimate. Most of the rest of his top 10 prices were achieved in 2022.

The remarkable surge in prices for Antono’s paintings in 2022 was in line with trends in the post-Covid global market, but it also raised questions about whether Antono’s works have being targeted by speculators. In 2023, his total sales value dropped to $643,966.

Auction data from the Artnet Price Database show that, out of the 162 recorded auction sales of Antono’s works (excluding prints), 113 of them involved works made in 2020 or later. (These were all traded between August 2021 and the end of 2023.) A majority of these were resold at auctions in Asia, including Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea.

Some of these works had originally been purchased from the Yogyakarta gallery Srisasanti Syndicate or Los Angeles’s Thinkspace; and the rest came from either Beinart Gallery in Brunswick, Australia, Modern Eden Gallery in San Francisco, or Unique Board in New York, according to records of the works’ provenance.

There are signs of price volatility in Antono’s market. Asteria (2021), a nearly 5-foot-tall sculpture in an edition of 20, sold for $72,231 at Phillips Hong Kong in June 2022, more than six times its $11,465 high estimate. Number one from an edition of 20, it was originally acquired from Thinkspace. Number 13 went for a within-expectations $38,531 at a Sotheby’s Hong Kong sale in July of that year, while Number 11 sold at a Phillips Hong Kong sale that November for just $24,215, about a third of the June price.

Roby Dwi Antono, Menari; Mentari (2023). (c) Roby Dwi Antono/ Courtesy of the artist and Almine Rech. Photo: Moza Alatta.

A Realistic Future

“We think his value should be based on primary market prices as auctions are influenced by trends,” said Almine Rech, whose London gallery just staged a solo show with the artist, following a late 2022 display at her Brussels location.

The London show saw Antono exploring a new style that breaks with the material traded so vigorously on the secondary market. Created after the birth of his daughter, Laut, last July, the paintings have a vivid color palette and are more abstract and raw than his surrealism-tinged efforts of the past. The sense of a man experiencing the joy and anxieties of being a father is palpable. Prices were a fraction of his auction highs—$40,000 and $75,000—and at Paris+ this past October, Rech sold an Antono in the range of $55,000 to $70,000.

Rech believes that the market for Antono will strengthen “if he continues creating his personal vocabulary.”

But whether more artists from Southeast Asia can really take off like Antono will depend on international galleries. “There’s lots of growth potential,” Phillips’s Tian pointed out, “but they would need more guidance and representation from galleries that can help bring them to more solo or group shows outside of Southeast Asia.”

Collectors “are still buying this category [ultra contemporary], which is an indispensable part of the market,” Bonacasa said. “But they are more selective. Whether the market for Roby’s art can continue to thrive will depend on whether he can keep reinventing his art. Only time will tell.”