Juru Kompor

born in Malang, 1970. For Gatot Pujiarto, art often begins with the unusual. Stories drawn from television, the news, and the world around him become seeds for creativity, reshaped into works that offer a new reality. Guided by his own “research,” he explores texture through patchwork and thread, using methods such as pasting, patching, layering, tearing, binding, and forming fresh patterns. His approach turns fragments of daily life into artworks that feel both familiar and surprising. Gatot graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts and Design at IKIP Malang in 1995 and later expanded his practice as a resident artist in the Transit programme at Selasar Sunaryo Art Space, Bandung, in 2011. His solo exhibitions include: "Beyond Image and Dreams" at Pearl Lam Galleries, Shanghai (2019), and "Stitching Stories" at Pearl Lam Galleries, Hong Kong (2016). His works have also been presented widely in group shows, among them "Stitching Gesture: Gatot Pujiarto’s Expanded Painting" at Jagad Gallery (2025); "World Hasn’t Been" at Semarang Gallery (2024); "Bridge of Colours" at the National Gallery of Thailand, Bangkok (2022); "Transboundaries" at Yogya Annual Art, Yogyakarta (2021); and "Metamorphoses" at Pearl Lam Galleries, Hong Kong and Shanghai (2020).