One of Myanmar’s pioneering contemporary artists, Po Po (b. 1957, Myanmar) is best known for his conceptual, often abstract drawings based on Buddhist core concepts of spirituality and philosophy. His work also references Myanmar’s fraught political history, framing and challenging the country’s socio-political landscape through an idiosyncratic interpretation of his environment. More recently, he incorporates documentation of contemporary Burmese society into his work, often with an element of humour.

Po Po’s early years as an artist were deeply impacted by the totalitarian rule and isolation of Myanmar. Like many artists of his generation in Myanmar, Po Po struggled with a lack of resources, direct and indirect censorship and a general societal resistance against experimental practices. He was amongst the first Burmese artists to embrace the modes and methods of conceptual art in the late-1980s, joining the Gangaw Village Art Group. Founded by the students and graduates of the Art Centre at the Rangoon Arts and Sciences University (now Yangon University) in 1979, the collective provided crucial support to experimental practices in Myanmar.

With the gradual opening up of the country in the 1990s, Po Po was one of the first Burmese artists to exhibit internationally. Since then, he has shown widely across Asia-Pacific and Europe, and in biennials and triennials in Australia, Bangladesh, Singapore, Japan and South Korea. His recent notable exhibitions include Minimalism: Space. Light. Object., National Gallery Singapore (2018–2019); Stop Peeping, Cement Fondu, Sydney, Australia (2019); and SUNSHOWER: Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia 1980s to Now, Mori Art Museum, National Art Center, Tokyo, Japan (2017).