<![CDATA[Penelitian ini menganalisis representasi visual budaya Arek dalam tiga lukisan Budi Ubrux dari proyek Ratu Adil, yakni “Memenangkan Harapan”, “Mengelus-elus Harapan”, dan “Melawan dengan Bertahan” (2023), melalui kerangka semiotika Roland Barthes. Pendekatan kualitatif interpretatif diterapkan pada pembacaan denotatif, konotatif, dan mitologis terhadap elemen-elemen visual seperti tubuh wong cilik, ayam jago, gestur nyangkruk, figur Samin, serta lanskap rural-urban. Data diperoleh melalui studi literatur budaya Arek dan observasi visual terhadap dokumentasi ketiga karya dari katalog pameran. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa karakter budaya Arek, egalitarianisme, blak-blakan, keras kepala, dan solidaritas guyub, divisualisasikan secara konsisten melalui komposisi kerumunan horizontal, kostum sederhana, dan relasi intim antara tubuh rakyat dengan simbol harapan. Pada lapisan mitologis, mitos Ratu Adil direposisi bukan sebagai figur mesianik tunggal yang datang dari atas, melainkan sebagai energi keadilan kolektif yang dimenangkan dan dipertahankan melalui praktik keseharian wong cilik. Temuan ini berkontribusi pada pengembangan kajian semiotika visual seni rupa Indonesia, sekaligus menunjukkan proyek Ratu Adil sebagai praktik dekolonisasi estetika yang menggeser pusat representasi dari citra global menuju identitas lokal Arek.Kata kunci: budaya Arek; semiotika visual; seni rupa kontemporer; Budi Ubrux; wong cilik---Arek Cultural Representation in Budi Ubrux’s Paintings: A Semiotic Study of the Solo Exhibition “Ratu Adil”. This study analyzes the visual representation of Arek culture in three paintings by Budi Ubrux from the Ratu Adil project: “Memenangkan Harapan (Winning Hope)”, “Mengelus-elus Harapan (Nurturing Hope)”, and “Melawan dengan Bertahan (Resisting by Enduring)” (2023), through Roland Barthes’ semiotic framework. A qualitative interpretive approach was applied to denotative, connotative, and mythological readings of visual elements such as the bodies of the wong cilik (common people), fighting cocks, the nyangkruk gesture, Samin figures, and rural-urban landscapes. Data were gathered through a literature study of Arek culture and visual observation of the three paintings documented in the exhibition catalogue. The findings reveal that the defining characteristics of Arek culture, egalitarianism, bluntless, stubbornness, and communal solidarity (guyub), are consistently visualized through horizontal crowd compositions, humble attire, and the intimate relationship between the people’s bodies and symbols of hope. At the mythological level, the Ratu Adil myth is repositioned not as a singular messianic figure descending from above, but as a collective force of justice won and sustained through the everyday practices of the wong cilik. These findings contribute to the development of visual semiotic studies in Indonesian visual arts, while also positioning the Ratu Adil project as a practice of aesthetic decolonization that shifts the center of representation from global imagery toward Arek local identity.Keywords: Arek culture; visual semiotics; contemporary visual arts; Budi Ubrux; wong cilik]]>
