Artchipel

Ruka Oogami | 大神留香 (Japan) - 楽描

[more Ruka Oogami 大神留香 | artist found at sosuperawesome]

Kawashima Kotori 川島小鳥 (b.1980, Japan) - Mirai-chan 未来ちゃん

Mirai-chan 未来ちゃん is a photo series made by  the Japanese photographer Kotori Kawashima, containing portraits of the daughter of his friend who lives in a village in Sado Island, Nigata prefecture. Originally published in a small print run by a Tokyo gallery, Mirai-chan has been republished and reportedly was one of the best-selling photobooks in Japan, being selected the number one “Book of the Year 2011” by the Japanese magazine Da Vinci.

[more Kawashima Kotori 川島小鳥]

Tumblr Artist

Sayaka Maruyama | on Tumblr (b.1983, Japan/Netherlands) - Sakura (2012)

Sayaka Maruyama was born in Japan and moved to Holland with her family at age of 12. That 3-year-stay in different culture influenced her in many ways especially in terms of art education. Her practice traverses the mediums of photography, film, drawings, installation and performance. Drawing on classical Japanese references and Surrealist motifs, her work explores contradictory contemporary understandings of Japanese notions of beauty, from both Western and Eastern perspectives. Maruyama has exhibited widely in London and Tokyo, and her images have been published in several renowned periodicals. Please visit artist’s website or follow her Tumblr for more work.

[more Sayaka Maruyama | artists found at ruineshumaines] 

Hiromi Nishizaka (b.1979, Japan)

雪花 Snowflake. 25x40 cm (2013)
春潮 Torrents of Spring. 25x40 cm (2011)
春雨 Spring rain. 24.6x40 cm (2011)

Born in Kanagawa, Japan, Hiromi Nishizaka is an artist and illustrator who uses pen, pigment ink and watercolor to create illustrations which powerfully evokes the nature and animals. Oneiric and surreal, her work is rooted in magic, folklore and fantasy. Honoured with many awards internationally, Nishizaka has had solo exhibitions since 2006 and has participated in several group exhibitions.

[more Hiromi Nishizaka | artist found at actegratuit]

Sagaki Keita (b.1984, Japan)

The Great Wave off Kanagawa from the series 36 Views of Mt.Fuji 冨嶽三十六景 神奈川沖浪裏. Pen on CLASSICO･5, 26.5×38.5 cm (2012)
Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji: Shower Below the Summit 冨嶽三十六景 山下白雨. Pen on CLASSICO･5, 25.4×38.6 cm (2012)
The Fifty-Three station of the Tokaido/Night Snow at Kambara 東海道五拾三次之内 蒲原 夜之雪. Pen on kentpaper, 25.1×37.3 cm (2008)

[more Sagaki Keita | artist found at just-art]

Yamamoto Masao (b.1957, Japan) - #1539/190

[more Yamamoto Masao | artist found at mydarkenedeyes]

Tumblr Monday 88

Yuta Onoda (Japan/Canada)

Changes. Mixed media on paper, 12” x 12”
Wish upon a Star. Mixed media on paper, 24” x 16”

Yuta Onoda, originally from Japan, is an illustrator / painter based in Toronto, Canada. He has been shaping his art aesthetic through various forms of media, finding new avenues to express himself. Many thanks to myampgoesto11 for introducing us Yuta Onoda on this Tumblr Monday: before the year ends, let’s make a wish upon a star and be open to changes :)

[more Yuta Onoda | Tumblr Monday with myampgoesto11]

Tumblr Monday 83

Ryoji Ikeda (b.1966, Japan/France) - The Transfinite (2011)

Video process & installation

Ryoji Ikeda’s background is in music, which he attributes to his time spent DJing in Tokyo while in his twenties, before further utilizing sound in artistic context. Having developed an extensive discography since the early nineties, Ikeda’s compositions are concerned with the absolute ends of sound spectra. Syncopating pulses of sound in unstructured phrases, modulating and distorting tones to both ends of the capacity of human hearing.

Ikeda’s increasingly complex installations follow similar criteria to which his compositions adhere. Construing data from im/possibly large computer-generated numbers, his quandaries of mathematical absolution and astronomical measures translate to high-contrast light-based works of art projected on constructed surfaces. Numbers in volume become forms of their own, blocks of white and black fracture and pulsate synchronously to Ikeda’s thoroughly processed musical compositions. Ikeda often pairs live performances with his installations.

What is revealed through the all-or-none aesthetic approach used in Ikeda’s multi-faceted retrospective is similar to a half-tone print. Being subjugated to such visual and musical extremity, the mind starts filling in gaps, creating the illusion of tonality and structure as the point of observation is shifted.

A sincere thanks to Jacob Van Loon for this Tumblr Monday. Ikeda’s new performance Superposition will premiere at the Centre Pompidou in Paris this week as part of the Festival d’Automne à Paris.

[more Ryoji Ikeda | Tumblr Monday with jacobvanloon]

Sayaka Ganz (Japan) - Emergence / Night

The Japanese sculptor Sayaka Ganz was born in Yokohama, grew up living in Japan, Brazil, and Hong Kong. Driven by a combination of the passion for fitting odd shapes together and a sympathy toward discarded objects, she creates animals from thrift store plastics:

“Building these sculptures helps me understand the situations that surround me. It reminds me that even if there is a conflict right now, there is also a solution in which all the pieces can coexist peacefully. Though there are wide gaps in some areas and small holes in others, when seen from the distance there is great beauty and harmony in our community. Through my sculptures I transmit a message of hope.”

[more Sayaka Ganz | artist found at myampgoesto11]

Sasaki Makoto (b.1971, Japan) - Tokyo layers (2011)

[more Sasaki Makoto | artist found at Designboom]

Onishi Yasuaki (b.1979, Japan) - Restriction sight AAC. Plastic sheet, paper, fluorescent paint, fan, black light, others,h280, w600, d1000cm (2007)

Discovery of new artists in aichi/AICHI ARTS CENTER

[more Onishi Yasuaki | artist found at pulmonaire]

Miharu Matsunaga (Japan) - Graduation work

[more Miharu Matsunaga | artist found at farewell-kingdom]

Tumblr Artist

Takahiko Hayashi | on Tumblr (b.1961, Japan)

The Unformed Figure - Flexible Objects. Print etching, 24x18 inches (2010)
Tokuyama Village-The Things Radiate Night 徳山村考-夜を放つものたち. Etching on paper, 19.7×36.0 cm (1996)

Takahiko Hayashi diligently works at creating masterfully bold abstractions, often with vibrant color. His work has a mystical quality and the titles reflect interest in philosophy “Considering Lao-Tse” as well as natural phenomena “The Spinning Wind”. (cf. RenBrown) “I try to create something from nothing. I try to capture negative to represent positive. I try to express the present with history, and east and west. It is when objects exist that nothingness can be recognized for the first time. That’s why wind attracts me. And Tokuyama village in Gifu prefecture, Lao-Tse, and Enku greatly influence my thought processes”, says Takahiko Hayashi. Please visit artist’s Tumblr for more work.

[more Takahiko Hayashi | artist found at iamjapanese]