sathar is the artist name under which Riandy Karuniawan has, since 2012, developed SATHAR, a humanoid figure marked by insect-like antennae and a third eye on its forehead. Envisioned as an embodiment of human consciousness, the character draws on Japanese pop culture, from manga and tokusatsu to retro video games. It appears across paintings, screen-printed posters, murals, comics and music videos.
Karuniawan was born in Aceh, Indonesia, and moved to Bandung to study architecture. There he was drawn into the city's indie and underground music scene, illustrating album covers and band merchandise. His work creates alternative realms and curious landscapes, placing the viewer in a hallucinogenic state of mind. It brings together natural life forms and technology in alien landscapes populated by beast-like figures and dreamlike, sci-fi elements. This reflects a preoccupation with unlocking the unconscious mind. In 2021 the character stepped into Web3. The practice then expanded into animation, digital painting and pixel art, built from layered frame-by-frame sequences, pixelation and glitch-like distortion. “SATHAR in me is the SATHAR in you.” The character has since appeared in four one-of-one works released fully on chain as Ordinals, reinterpreting core human virtues through pixel-based hybrid figures.
