Where Tigers Talk and Teapots Fly | Javanese Painter Erica Hestu | inspired by H.C. Andersen tales

At Mindmachine Art Gallery, we are proud to present a solo exhibition by Indonesian artist Erica Hestu Wahyuni, in Denmark for the very first time

Born in Yogyakarta in 1971, Erica Hestu Wahyuni is known for her complex and naïve-style paintings, where a teeming universe of figures, animals, symbols, and narrative fragments tell personal stories in a vibrant, childlike visual language. Educated at the Indonesian Institute of Art and the Surikov Institute of Art in Moscow, she has exhibited her work widely across Asia, Russia, and Europe.

For this exhibition, Erica has created an entirely new series of works specifically for Mindmachine Art Gallery. Drawing inspiration from the fairy tales of H.C. Andersen, which she read and listened to as a child, she invites us into a visual dialogue between East and West, between tradition and imagination. Her works are rich in symbolism and poetic detail—both captivating and thought-provoking.

Much like Andersen’s tales, Erica’s paintings hold elements of the familiar as well as the uncanny. Each piece is a story in itself—like a modern picture book for grown-ups, where fantasy and reality seamlessly merge.