Arya Wirawan (Indonesian, b. 1986) is an illustrator and painter who reworks Indonesian folklore, mythology, and urban legends into comic-influenced visual art.,Working in Yogyakarta, he blends the graphic style of comics from the late 1990s and 2000s, along with manga and tattoo design, with characters and stories drawn from across the Indonesian archipelago.,,He studied visual communication design at Institut Seni Indonesia Yogyakarta.
In Inyiak Rimbo, he turns a Minangkabau myth of a shapeshifting tiger into an anthropomorphic character styled after fantasy comic illustration.In Nyi Blorong, The South Coast Warlord, he reinterprets a Javanese legend with cyberpunk visuals, describing his approach as sitting between traditional culture and hypebeast style.,Wirawan recalls using similar character designs while studying comic illustration in 2005. He turned to the NFT space partly after the COVID-19 pandemic canceled international artist residencies he had planned in Italy, Japan, and Germany.In 2023, he won open calls for “Folklore Art in Miami” in December and for the “BREATHE! Convention” in Las Vegas in August.
