Exhibition
WAVE: Currents in Japanese Graphic Arts
Graphic arts featured in the exhibition include elements of pop art, surrealism and illustration, as well as the concept of heta-uma, which translates as ‘bad, but good’, and refers to apparently unskilled art which reveals greater merit upon close inspection. Emerging in the underground manga magazine GARO in the 1970s, heta-uma challenges our perspective of what is ‘ugly’ or ‘beautiful’ and our definitions of art itself.
Variety and anarchy are ever-present in WAVE, with Jenny kaori’s bold, punky depictions of girlhood juxtaposed against Yukishita Mayu’s brooding photorealist portraits and husband-and-wife team tupera tupera’s delightful children’s book illustration.
Acrylic on canvas 2021
Originally from Oita Prefecture, Suga Mica trained in fashion illustration and copperplate etching at a woodblock printing studio. As an illustrator, she creates paintings and paper prints, occasionally combining the techniques in collages made with scraps of fine paper that she collects and reuses. Many of her works feature unsmiling women who appear uneasy, as if viewing the world with distrust or emotional detachment. Her characters and scenes are typically quirky or absurd, as in this image of characters pretending to be foxes while embracing real foxes. Suga has shown in several group and solo exhibitions in Japan.
Acrylic on canvas, 2021
Tokyo-based artist Enomoto Mariko (born 1982) studied fashion and, today, design magazine and record covers and other commercial products. As a painter, she is self-taught, influenced by her great-grandfather, who was a Nihonga (‘’Japanese-style picture’’) artist. Growing up surrounded by art and nature has informed her own painting style, and many of her figures interweave human and natural elements, such as animals and plants. Here, blue orchids grow over the eyes of a young woman, while a bee emerges from her mouth, as image that is at once elegant and surreal.
Ink and acrylic on paper, 2020
Yukishita Mayu (born 1995) studied graphic design at Tama Art University. She has been working as an illustrator for commercials, music and book cover design, and recently founded her own fashion brand, Esth. As an artist, she works in a photorealistic style, creating paintings in oil and acrylic, as well as digitally. In some of her works, she also incorporates elements of manga: In her portraits, for example, she enlarges the eyes slightly. The images, mostly of young women who stare boldly at the viewer, have a dark, moody quality to them, an emotional edge that elevates the work beyond realism.
Inkjet print on washi (Japanese paper), 2022
Yano is an illustrator born in Kochi in 1988. He graduated from the Department of Sculpture at Tokyo University of the Arts, then completed a postgraduate course in artistic anatomy at the same institution. Before devoting his time fully to illustration in 2017, he worked as a designer for Nintendo. He works mainly in advertising, but also illustrating books and magazines. Some of his major works include promotional materials for Shiseido, the jacket for a single by Kyoto musician Nakamura Kaho, and flyer visuals for theatre company LOLO. He is also a part-time lecturer at Yokohama University of Art and Design.
‘’ I mainly draw people’s faces. Sometimes you might think back and wonder, ‘’That person I met that day…what did they look like?’’ yet only retrieve a hazy, subjective impression. We don’t truly know ourselves, let alone other people, and it’s that sense of personal uncertainly I’m aiming to convey in my paintings.’’
Oil on Canvas, 2021
Tomozawa Kotao (born in 1999) was born in Bordeaux in France. She left Paris in 2004 and is currently at Tokyo University of the Arts, studying oil painting, while also exhibiting her work in galleries, Her portraits typically feature faces covered with slime-like substances. The texture, translucency and softness of the materials are meticulously depicted, leaving the viewer to question the reality of what they are looking at.
Digital print on canvas, 2021
Using vivid colour, and a predominantly pink colour palette, Kaori creates strong, mischievous female figures who transcend gender boundaries and challenge stereotypes of femininity and girlishness. Here, and with reference to the title in Chinese characters meaning ‘’an accidental fall’’, a girl appears to have fallen out of a car and is surrounded by the contents of several boxes that have spilled out all over the ground. In one hand, she holds a sceptre with a heart finial: in the other, she clutches cash. The image suggests a young person overwhelmed by consumerism.
Digital print on canvas, 2021
(Original: Marker on canvas, 2017)
Terada Katsuya (born in 1963) is an illustrator and manga artist from Okayama. He calls himself a rakugaki artist (meaning a scribbler, or doodler), as he likes to draw a little everywhere and all the time. As a manga and anime artist, he has designed characters for Japanese animated films and series, created artwork for several video games, and worked on American comics such as Iron Man and Hellboy. As an illustrator and artist, he pushes — with handheld pens and digital tool alike — the boundaries of manga and art, building elaborate clusters of line-drawn motifs from dreams, fantasies, and the natural realm.
Acrylic on canvas, 2021
Tokyo-based artist Awai (born in 1981) grew up loving to draw and studied design at college. She still delights in the process of drawing, allowing herself to be led by her subconscious and emotions, so that her cartoon-style characters often express her own moods and feelings. While the images may reflect sadness or pain, Awai typically adds an element that offers comfort. In this work, she portrays the loneliness of a young girl with a few simple strokes and creates a setting that suggests destruction and loss. Beside the girl, however, a small rabbit provides companionship and solace.
Giclee print on canvas, 2020
Ito Keiji (born 1958) is a Tokyo-based illustrator, graphic designer, and director of Unidentified Flying Graphics (UFG). Much of his work investigates the idea that things that seem ordinary at the first glance may often conceal madness and psychedelia —- such as the jelly mountain in this surreal landscape, which, along with the title Five Tones, is a nod to Steven Spielberg’s 1977 science fiction film Close Encounters of the Third Kind. To Ito, portals to other worlds lie hidden in our everyday spaces, and they can open suddenly and create a sense of incongruity: he tries to capture these moments for eternity in his paintings. Ito has had numerous solo exhibitions, taken part in domestic and international shows, and produced several publications, including his latest work Future Days.
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