Eko Nugroho's work represents the daily life of Indonesian society, which is on one hand strongly hierarchical and Muslim-influenced and on the other hand influenced by globalization and the western value system. In his paintings this contrast is visualized by showing fantasy beings comprised of human limbs and machine elements with faces mostly hidden behind masks or helmets. By juxtaposing these images with humorous but also critical texts and sayings, Nugroho tries to entice especially the young Indonesian generation to deal with political issues. He develops his skills in as many mediums as he can, from painting to drawing and video to more traditional hand craft techniques such as hook rugging. He often works in the public arena—whether it is in his native city Yogyakarta or in the WrangelStrasse neighborhood of Berlin-Kreuzberg, where he realized a Graffiti-painting with a group of local youths while reflecting on their social environment. 

For the 10th Lyon Biennale he had been invited to a residency near Lyon. There he worked with the local community, consisting mostly of immigrants, together they made a puppet shadow play based on the traditional wayang, resulting in a contemporaryversion of it which captured the western audience with its mixture oftraditional and contemporary elements reflecting on western society.Beside numerous solo exhibitions in Southeast Asia, he has been invited toseveral artist in residency programmes such as the one of the Lyon Biennal(2009), the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland (2008) or theZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe (2011). Following his solo exhibitions in Amsterdam (2004), Den Haag (2005), NewYork und Peking (2011) the “Musee d’Art Moderne de la ville de Paris“ willpresent his work end of 2011 in a solo show.He has also taken part in numerous national and international group exhibitionsincluding the “ASIA PASIFIC TRIENNALE 5” Queensland Art Gallery, Australia(2004); Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans (2004); “WIND FROM THE EAST”,KIASMA Museum of Contemporary, Helsinski, Finland (2007); “EXPENDITURE” BusanBiennale 2008, Busan, South Korea (2008); “CONTEMPORANEITY”, MOCA Shanghai,China (2010).