Preview: Yoshitomo Nara’s “Greetings from a Place in My Heart” at Dairy Art Centre

Earlier this year, Blum & Poe gallery in Los Angeles brought us never before seen works by Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara (covered here). The show was critically acclaimed for his introduction of new materials, including large scale bronze busts and environmentally-friendly installations. Alongside some of these same peices, he will debut a new series "Greetings from a Place in My Heart", opening tonight at Dairy Art Centre in London. Nara will also host a rare artist talk about the exhibit, notably the largest retrospective of his drawings, paintings, and sculpture spanning 30 years.

Earlier this year, Blum & Poe gallery in Los Angeles brought us never before seen works by Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara (covered here). The show was critically acclaimed for his introduction of new materials, including large scale bronze busts and environmentally-friendly installations. Alongside some of these same peices, he will debut a new series “Greetings from a Place in My Heart”, opening tonight at Dairy Art Centre in London.

Nara will also host a rare artist talk about the exhibit, notably the largest retrospective of his drawings, paintings, and sculpture spanning 30 years. He brings them together for the first time in bolder and more luminescent layers of paper than before.The roughly 200 sketches offer both insight into the artist’s process and a glimpse into his future as he develops creatively in post-war Japan. These cultural influences range from Japanese manga and Western painting practice to his signature themes, like folk and rock music. Nara’s art has long represented children’s imaginations, adult problems, and our rebellion against the modern world. As society and pop culture changes, so do the issues he addresses in his imagery, constantly forming his artistic expression.

Yoshitomo Nara’s “Greetings from a Place in My Heart” opens on October 2nd at Dairy Art Centre in London. The exhibition will tour to ARKEN Museum of Modern Art, Ishøj, Denmark in October 2015.

Topics

Blum and Poe, Japanese art, Retrospective, Yoshitomo Nara

Arabesque, Islamic Art, Japanese art, Portraiture, Yasuyo Fujibe

January 22, 2015

Yasuyo Fujibe's softspoken, decorative works immediately caught our eye at LA Art Show last week. Her pieces there represented a departure from her older monochromatic paintings of faces in favor of new bolder elements. This would be her unique portrayal of doe-eyed girls in the arabesque style of Islamic art. Her use of surface decorations are based on the linear patterns of foliage and snowflakes, tiled repeatedly in a lace-like manner. Quiet yet intense, girls stare dreamily through their veils of interwoven lines.

Preview: “Come with me” by Tomokazu Matsuyama at Gallery Wendi Norris

Japanese art, Napoleon, pop art, Tomokazu Matsuyama, Wendi Norris

March 8, 2015

Tomokazu Matsuyama's (Vol 24) third exhibition at Wendi Norris, which opens on March 12th, is a monument to some of art history's most iconic subjects. The title "Come with me" represents the spirit of Matsuyama's inspirations, powerful leaders spanning ancient Greek heroes, samurai, to Napoleon. Napoleon has been of particular interest to the artist of late, the subject of his "Sky is the Limit" installation at Harbour City Gallery, Hong Kong last year.

Studio Visit: Stephanie Inagaki Shares Her Ghostly Charcoal Drawings

Collage, Japanese art, Stephanie Inagaki

January 29, 2016

Japanese artist Stephanie Inagaki's black and white charcoal drawings depict female figures that are not only an embodiment of her roots, but also of herself as an artist and a woman. For the past couple of years, she has been incorporating the Japanese ghost folklore and mythology of her culture into what she describes as "pillars of inspiration"; tall, bold, creative women, often self-portraits, that represent the well rounded woman Inagaki aspires to be. Previously featured on our blog, she likens the figures in her drawings to the Creation and Destruction goddesses like Kali from India or Izanami from Japan, and there is generally an underlying theme of life and death throughout. Inagaki invited Hi-Fructose into her new studio in Los Angeles to give us a preview and tell us more about the direction of where her work is going.

On View: Keiichi Tanaami’s “Cherry Blossoms Falling in the Evening Gloom” at Nanzuka

Collage, graphic design, Japanese art, Keiichi Tanaami, pop art

October 29, 2014

Japanese pop artist Keiichi Tanaami (previously covered here) has a new exhibition on view at Tokyo's underground gallery, Nanzuka. "Cherry Blossoms Falling in the Evening Gloom" is named after his show's titular piece, an effort to take the darkest of his personal experiences and turn them into a positive image. The 3-meter painting leads into a transformation in the artist's motifs, known for his glowing, grotesque creatures, which are shown emitting light.

Preview: Yoshitomo Nara’s “Greetings from a Place in My Heart” at Dairy Art Centre

Yasuyo Fujibe’s Portraits Merge Islamic and Japanese Art

Preview: “Come with me” by Tomokazu Matsuyama at Gallery Wendi Norris

Studio Visit: Stephanie Inagaki Shares Her Ghostly Charcoal Drawings

On View: Keiichi Tanaami’s “Cherry Blossoms Falling in the Evening Gloom” at Nanzuka

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