The Timeless Grotesque: Hidden Shadows And Forbidden Secrets Of Bosch, Goya, And Pop Surrealism At the beginning of 2024, I began working on a series I titled Romantic Grotesque, which also falls within my Pop Surrealism practice. The title appeared…
As a Pop Surrealism artist and NFT artist from Indonesia, Hans Kristo explores the evolving role of mediums in art—from tradition to digital and AI. This reflection connects personal experimentation with glitch and mixed media to the broader dialogue of Indonesian contemporary art, where innovation and heritage continuously merge.
Why are young collectors embracing Pop Surrealism? From visual style and color palettes to themes, personal connections, and even AI art, this new generation is reshaping contemporary art trends and fueling the rise of pop surrealist works in galleries and online.
Pop Surrealism was born from the Lowbrow Art Movement, rooted in street culture, comics, and social critique. This article explores the clash of high art vs low art, the story of Robert Williams and Juxtapoz, and how Pop Surrealism evolved into a contemporary visual language.
The Rise of Abstract Expressionism in the Contemporary Zeitgeist From catharsis to formalism: tracing the inner language of art Abstract Expressionism: From Pure Form to Inner Release The contemporary era, marked by the rise of Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and…
Fragmented Psyche” — a mirror cracked, reflecting hysteria and the quiet unraveling within.
“In Disruption We Trust” from the Homo Ludens collection — a reflection on how life itself is a playground of roles, rules, and inevitable change. Disruption isn’t chaos, but the only certainty that shapes the stories we live in.
Ink on paper artwork of Dark Santa, a sinister reimagination of the holiday figure, blending themes of shadow, greed, and forgotten desires.
Where wings meet webs—Araneus–Papilioensis embodies both beauty and dread, a fragile metamorphosis suspended in shadow.
Mysura walks with the silence of caves and the wisdom of roots—an unseen guide in the Parade of Characters.
From laughter to horror—Rogan Cluckbane carves his obsession into feathers and fear.
From the shadows of Elunia’s hidden valley, Mysura whispers through roots and rivers—keeper of secrets, healer of the unseen.
TRISERVA is a formidable guardian, a fusion of three loyal rabbits transformed by mystical potions into a single, eerie protector. With overlapping faces and razor-sharp teeth, its monstrous appearance strikes fear into any intruder who dares approach Elara and the hidden paths. Silent and elusive, TRISERVA only emerges from the shadows when Elara’s safety is at stake, its instincts honed solely for defense
From skull and shadow, he brings wonder — Balthazar’s circus turns chaos into harmony beneath the cliffs of Gloomshade
In silence, she heals. Whisperra drifts unseen, yet her presence lingers like a soft incantation.
From the shadows of the valley, Mysura blooms — a silent keeper of secrets.
Balthazar laughs in the silence — a clown of bones and echoes, forever caught between joy and dread.
“FORGOTTEN FANTASIA — where childhood icons decay into surreal echoes, their joy melting into strange memory.”
Mind Expansion — a burst of colors where thought, memory, and vision collide, opening unseen doors within.
At the center of silence, the first breath returns.
Harmonizing the Essence — where contrasts meet, blending tension and calm into a single breath of existence.
Inner Flow — where ideas drift into currents of flesh and shade, uncovering the silent pulse inside.
Becoming the Transcendent — a self dissolving beyond the material, finding unity in earth and sky, reaching for a higher consciousness.
“Crayon and oil pastel — a playground of textures, where every layer reveals Hans Kristo’s restless urge to explore new mediums.”
Layers of flesh and rhythm — organic movements tangled in surreal colors, revealing life’s hidden pulse.”
This painting was made in 2024 using charcoal on paper
Harmonizing the Essence — where contrasts meet, blending tension and calm into a single breath of existence.
A landscape built from many perspectives – Intersubjective Horizons
“Game Changer” — when one move reshapes the entire board.
When the mind reaches too far, its thoughts twist into tendrils — connecting, consuming, and creating worlds of their own.
EMBER-STEPS — where fragile flames guide the lost, and creatures with X-eyes linger in the shadows.
System Traps” — where life unfolds as an endless game of rituals, rules, and illusions of greatness.
Fractured Simulacra — where order collapses, reality glitches, and the world itself becomes a question.
Truth and illusion entwined, building a republic of imagination.
The hidden always finds a way to reveal itself.”
We build habits, and then habits build us.
Fear ticks louder than time itself — the rabbit machine never blinks
The Gluttonous Gear — a factory without mercy, where pigs of desire churn the wheels of endless hunger, and production never sleeps.
Industrial Bath — where discarded humanity is immersed in the machinery of modern life, caught between what is deemed useful and what is left to waste.
dynasty of code, stacked bodies, and repeating silence
Responding to Guernica: Pop Surrealism reframed in a classical cloak
“Exquisite Aberrations #3 — fragments of chaos stitched into rhythm, where even childhood echoes slip through the cracks.”
“Exquisite Aberrations #2 — where playful icons twist into surreal distortions, revealing the strangeness beneath the familiar.”
“Imagined Community” — where unity is stitched from illusions, and identity flickers between truth and myth.
“Romantic Grotesque #1 — where beauty bends into strangeness, and tenderness finds its place in distortion.”
Where beauty whispers and distortion speaks—Romantic Grotesque #2 unveils harmony in the fractured in-between.
“Eternal Wanderer” — a reflection on play as both freedom and burden, where the act of wandering becomes a game of existence itself.
Exquisite Aberrations #1 — a surreal bloom of distortion, where beauty emerges through strangeness.”