Sullivan+Strumpf is proud to present the Singapore solo exhibition debut of Jakarta-based Indonesian artist Eko Bintang, Role/Play. Following the announcement of his representation with the gallery earlier this year, this highly anticipated presentation sees a new series of works that extend and deepen the artist’s exploration of identity.

Eko Bintang (b. 1984, Jakarta)’s practice centres on the fluidity of identity and the quiet negotiations that shape human behaviour. His works feature tenderly imagined whimsical characters – often clad in subtle disguises or situated within ambiguous scenes, as they navigate the delicate balance between authenticity and self-presentation.

As Olivier Giles writes for Sullivan+Strumpf Magazine, the playful outfits of Bintang’s subjects “evoke the theatre or the circus, infusing the paintings with a sense of fun. This warmth is heightened by their faint smiles, and the way many are pictured with their eyes gently closed, seemingly in quiet contentment”.

“But Bintang’s characters are never as untroubled as they might first appear – sometimes appearing with physical characteristics that pull them out of the real world, such as dramatically elongated arms that appear to tie them in knots; at others they are depicted floating in space, untethered from anyone or anything, possibly lost.”

Contradictions, Giles comments, define Bintang’s paintings. “Simultaneously uplifting and unsettling, tender and tense, hopeful and haunted, his costumed and posing figures echo the ways in which we all perform our identities in everyday life – whether consciously or not”; adapting in response to perception, expectation, and the instinct for self-protection.

Working primarily in figural painting, Bintang builds his canvases with a distinctive technique that incorporates coffee grounds to achieve a richly textured surface reminiscent of the weathered, tactile quality of Italian Renaissance fresco paintings. This materiality sensibility – foregrounding vulnerability and the element of chance, further emphasising the artist’s expression of identity as mutable and continually evolving.

At once visually arresting and psychologically layered — the works in Role / Play invite reflection on the roles we inhabit; the ones we quietly resist; and the ways in which social norms inhibit genuine human connection.

The exhibition marks a significant moment in the Sullivan+Strumpf Singapore program, extending the gallery’s commitment to presenting compelling voices from across Southeast Asia.