My name is Danar Gondrong — or as some friends say, DanArt. I was born in Bantul, Yogyakarta, on January 1st, 19xx — yes, I arrived together with fireworks. I grew up among rice fields and radio noise, learning that art often starts from boredom and curiosity. I wasn’t the best student, but colors, sounds, and chaos were always my teachers.
After finishing junior high at SMP 3 Bantul (now SMP 2 Bantul) — one of the well-known schools in the area — I continued my journey at SMSR Yogyakarta, an art high school that turned lines into emotions. It was supposed to be just four years, but those years became a lifetime influence. I never made it to ISI — not because I didn’t want to, but because life had a different tuition system.
In 1997, I crossed the sea to Taiwan. Not as a worker — just a young wanderer with sketchbooks and strange thoughts. In 2001, I joined ISWI, Germany, speaking about “Cyber Space Around Us” — long before “metaverse” and “AI” were cool buzzwords. I said: “If signals were visible, the Earth would look like it’s stitched with glowing threads.” Back then, people laughed. Today, they call it Wi-Fi.
From Berlin (2003–2006) to Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Maldives, and Sri Lanka, I traveled, painted, drove, and lived by instinct. I wasn’t chasing money — I was collecting stories. Every stranger, every culture, and every road became part of my unfinished painting called “life.”
After COVID-19, I stayed still for the first time. Coffee replaced airports, cigarettes replaced tickets. I watched the digital world I once imagined become reality — glowing, noisy, and beautifully chaotic. Now I paint less, but I see more. I’m just another random person trying to find rhythm in this messy orchestra called existence.
“It was morning in Frankfurt, Germany. Immigration stopped me — because I had no last name. I told them, ‘Our first president is Soekarno. The second is Soeharto. Both only one name. So, it’s normal in my country.’ They laughed — and I got my stamp. That morning, I realized even names can travel as art.”
“If signals were visible, the Earth would look like it’s been stitched with glowing threads — networks surrounding every human, connecting every thought. We would be terrified… or enlightened.”
In 2001, during the International Student Week in Ilmenau (ISWI), Germany, I presented “Cyber Space Around Us.” I wasn’t a scientist — just a curious artist from Yogyakarta who saw technology as the new canvas of humanity.
I imagined the Earth covered by invisible threads — signals, data, and digital pulses — weaving humans, machines, and feelings into one living organism. Back then, people thought it was poetic nonsense. Now, it’s everyday reality.
The works “Just Future” and “Cyber Stitch” are reflections of that idea — how our world slowly dissolved into invisible codes and connections. They weren’t warnings — they were love letters to our digital evolution.
Today, when I look at glowing screens and smart cities, I smile. Maybe the world didn’t go crazy — it just caught up with my imagination.
Some artworks are born in canvas, others in pixels. Here’s where you can see the rest of my chaos and color:
🎥 “No Edit No Filter — just real road, real mind, real moment.”
Subscribe & support my chaos here:
@Danarta
and
@JalanJalanYogya
People often ask, “Danar, do you paint nudes?”
I smile and answer, “Yes — but not with bodies, with souls.”
In my canvas, there’s no skin — only energy, rhythm, and emotion.
Maybe you’re beautiful, maybe you’re not — it doesn’t matter. Once I paint you, you’ll become
abstractly beautiful — sexy without form, human without ego.
My realism might disappoint you, because it never matches your mirror. My realism already turned into abstract honesty — unpredictable, messy, and perfectly alive. 😄
⚠️ Warning: If you become my model, you might vanish and come back as a color. (Don’t worry — I don’t do drugs. I am the drug. Maybe just caffeine and wrong mushrooms once in a while.)
“Salvador Dalí once said, I don’t do drugs. I am drugs.
And maybe this is the sequel he never wrote — I’m not the drug, I’m just the effect.”
— A continuation from Dali, born in Jogjakarta.
Sometimes art isn’t a substance — it’s the echo that lingers in your veins. Maybe caffeine, maybe chaos, maybe just life itself ☕✨
First said by Danar, 2025 — and yes, not yet on the internet.
(So if you see it later, remember where it started.)
Leave your email here... maybe one day I’ll write to you — abstractly 😜
Don’t worry, I often forget to write anyway 😅
So maybe you’ll have to write first... if you feel like it, hehe.
No pressure to fill it out — the important thing is to stay healthy and happy! 💫
(Sometimes being overconfident is just another form of living art 🎨)
In the ‘90s, I thought I was a genius. The paint thought otherwise. Every canvas looked like a traffic accident between color and confusion. But that’s how creation starts — chaos with ambition, silence with a brush. I learned that even mistakes have texture — and turpentine smells like hope.
Read More
Collaboration is a fancy word for creative argument. We painted, we drank, we debated whether God was colorblind. Sometimes we made art, sometimes we just made noise — but either way, the walls ended up emotional, and so did we.
Read More
I once said I’d never sell my art.
Then PLN sent me a love letter called “invoice.”
So I started shooting photos, designing murals,
and pretending commercial work was part of my philosophy.
Turns out, even capitalism can look artistic under the right lighting.
Whether I drive or paint, it’s the same journey — chasing balance between direction and chaos. Some people collect stamps; I collect stories from highways and back alleys. You can call me an artist, a driver, or just a moving dot on Google Maps. But every ride, like every brushstroke, leads somewhere — even if it’s just back to myself.
Read MoreSnapshots of the chaos behind the canvas.
Self Portrait — Stupid Me
Studio Chaos — Midnight Acrylic Battle
Coffee & Paint — Survival Mode
Brush Moment — Between Calm and Chaos
Laugh Before the Exhibition
Signature Wall — Every Crack Tells a Story
“Every crack, stain, or coffee spill — might be my next masterpiece.”
Selections from exhibitions and ongoing experiments — auto-fitted by pure intuition.
(Every visit reshuffles the art — pure Danarta randomness.)
By Danar, Jogjakarta – Artist, Thinker, Human Observer
“If signals were visible, the Earth would look like it’s been stitched with glowing threads — networks surrounding every human, connecting every thought. We would be terrified… or enlightened.”
In 2001, during the International Student Week in Ilmenau (ISWI), long before social media, smartphones, or the term metaverse existed, Danar — a young artist from Jogjakarta — spoke about “Cyber Space Around Us.”
He described an Earth covered by invisible threads — signals, data, and digital pulses — weaving humans, machines, and emotions into one interconnected fabric. Back then, it was poetry. Today, it is Wi-Fi, GPS, 5G, IoT, and AI.
Danar’s vision bridged art and technology — not through equations, but through feeling the energy of connection. He sensed that one day, the digital world would not live inside computers, but would breathe through the air, the streets, and the spaces between us.
“Every signal carries a heartbeat,” he once said, “and when all heartbeats are connected, the planet itself becomes alive.”
Now, decades later, his words echo the essence of the digital age — a world stitched together by unseen lines of light.
< hey, don’t stare at me too long here (danart.html)
you might catch my effect hehehe 😄
better book me here,
you’ll lock me up in a room for three days — don’t worry, it’s not kidnapping... it’s artnapping 🎨
or just go back to JogjakartaDriver where I’m the leader :)
cheers — Danarta No Last Name
“I’m not the drug, I’m just the effect.” — Danar, Jogjakarta, 2025 ✨
A continuation from Salvador Dalí’s chaos — brewed with caffeine & acrylic.
