YOUNG ARTISTS
Space and Memory：HONG KONG
Dimensions：TOKYO
August 27, 2021
INTRODUCTION
There are few opportunities in the world today for young artists to display their work. Art museums and galleries tend to prefer experienced and prominent artists. This holds true the bigger the institution becomes. So, most of the good exhibition opportunities are claimed by stars who have more marketability.
Every artist starts as an unknown, and there are countless young artists in the world right now seeking to make a name for themselves. Given just one right opportunity, each one of them has the potential to make it big. It has always been my wish to discover such young talent.
This group exhibition features young artists of whom I discovered while visiting the graduation exhibitions from different art universities.
Artists with no hint of their forebears, and artists who possess unique perspectives and expressions are the ones who will expand the market of contemporary art and write a new chapter in its history. I specifically chose artists with interesting works who have the potential to play such a role.
Like the epoch-making artist Léonard Foujita, these young artists are blazing their own trails, which is why I selected their works for this exhibition. I sincerely hope that you come and enjoy it.
Finally, I would like to wish all artists and art lovers a prosperous life beyond this current pandemic.
I wish Art will make you happy!!!
Koei Shiraishi
Spece and Memory
Whitestone Gallery H Queen’s is delighted to present “Space and Memory,” a group exhibition showcasing works by three local emerging artists — Kwong San Tang, Szelit Cheung, and Tap Chan — as part of the HKAGA Summer Programme.
The concept of space has been fundamental to shaping our lived experiences and widely explored by artists and writers across time; from Gaston Bachelard’s monumental work that changed our thoughts and memories of domestic spheres; to Michel Foucault’s heterotopias which refer to ‘places outside of all places’; to the Light and Space movement’s rigorous investigation of perceptual phenomena in the 1960s and 1970s. Similarly, these three Hong Kong artists investigate the ways in which spaces are represented, perceived, and imagined in relation to identities, dreams, and memories, opening up gateways for reflection and contemplation.
The concept of space has been fundamental to shaping our lived experiences and widely explored by artists and writers across time; from Gaston Bachelard’s monumental work that changed our thoughts and memories of domestic spheres; to Michel Foucault’s heterotopias which refer to ‘places outside of all places’; to the Light and Space movement’s rigorous investigation of perceptual phenomena in the 1960s and 1970s. Similarly, these three Hong Kong artists investigate the ways in which spaces are represented, perceived, and imagined in relation to identities, dreams, and memories, opening up gateways for reflection and contemplation.
Tap Chan
Anxiety will eventually turn into total white
Tap Chan’s exhibition space is pure white – white artworks, white walls, white emotions. The space looks like a bedroom as well as a utopian existence.
I learnt that the artist is using these works to express her private memories of anxiety and insomnia, such as using dense nylon fibers to construct the shape of a washboard, while alluding to the long hair that falls out due to anxiety; using a white headboard and neon glow to explore dreams, rest and reverie.
-quoted from HKAGA writer Carol Yuan
Tap Chan’s exhibition space is pure white – white artworks, white walls, white emotions. The space looks like a bedroom as well as a utopian existence.
I learnt that the artist is using these works to express her private memories of anxiety and insomnia, such as using dense nylon fibers to construct the shape of a washboard, while alluding to the long hair that falls out due to anxiety; using a white headboard and neon glow to explore dreams, rest and reverie.
-quoted from HKAGA writer Carol Yuan
Tap Chan
Tap Chan
Tap Chan (b. 1981) was born in Hong Kong and currently lives and works in Hong Kong. She received her B.A, in Fine Arts from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in 2011 and an M.A. in Visual Arts from the Hong Kong Baptist University in 2014. Working mainly in installation, video, and sculpture, she is interested in exploring the idea of liminality, one embedded in daily life where the boundaries between fiction and reality are often blurred, like the undefined psychic and emotional ruptures experienced during bouts of insomnia. Chan constructs narratives of the subterranean mind that rumble beneath the facade of modern existence. Chan’s work has been exhibited internationally and locally, including in Singapore and The Netherlands. Chan has been included in several exhibitions, such as Tai Kwun Contemporary, Mine Project, Pao’s Galleries, Hong Kong Sculpture Biennial, 1A Space, Quartair, Wolfart Project Space, Duddell’s, Harthall, INSTINC, among others.
Szelit Cheung
Void can also be ardent
Orange and red are the favorite colors of mine. In my perception, orange and red should be the opposite of white – the latter is soft and calm, while the former is bright and passionate. Therefore, I was surprised when move from Tap Chan’s white dream land to Szelit Cheung’s orange-red house.
Using light, shadow, color, and geometric structure, Cheung’s works repaint places he has visited and express his geographical memories. This is the artist’s first attempt at bright color expression, but his unique utilization of color and light makes the orange-red images appear soft instead of ardent.
- quoted from HKAGA writer Carol Yuan
Orange and red are the favorite colors of mine. In my perception, orange and red should be the opposite of white – the latter is soft and calm, while the former is bright and passionate. Therefore, I was surprised when move from Tap Chan’s white dream land to Szelit Cheung’s orange-red house.
Using light, shadow, color, and geometric structure, Cheung’s works repaint places he has visited and express his geographical memories. This is the artist’s first attempt at bright color expression, but his unique utilization of color and light makes the orange-red images appear soft instead of ardent.
- quoted from HKAGA writer Carol Yuan
Szelit Cheung
Szelit Cheung
Szelit Cheung (b.1988) is a Hong Kong-based artist. His cross-disciplinary practice includes painting, drawings and photography. Currently, he is investigating the essence of the void, exploring the connections between presence and emptiness by utilising simple forms. He experiments with light and colours as a means to echo and amplify feelings that are intangible yet powerful. After graduating from The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University (RMIT) in 2012, his work has been widely exhibited locally and internationally, including the USA, France, Japan, Taiwan, and China. He has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Rossi and Rossi, Hong Kong; Touch Gallery, Hong Kong; Galerie Ora-Ora, Hong Kong; and Yiri Arts, Taiwan. He has been included in group exhibitions at several institutional spaces and galleries, including One Thousand Museum, Miami; Pao Galleries, Hong Kong; Pearl Lam Galleries, Hong Kong; Tokyo Gallery + BTAP, Tokyo; and Crane Gallery, Taiwan.
Kwong San Tang
The despair and hope of black
In the monochrome graphite works of Kwong San Tang, I read the collision of despair and hope.
Tang’s works mainly recreate his personal memory and that of a generation of Hong Kong people: the Chinese immigrants who smuggled themselves to Hong Kong by water in the last century in search of freedom. The overall color palette of the work is gray and black, and at one glance I could feel a sense of dreary despair, just as the immigrants who drifted about in the sea had experienced. Yet the process was a hopeful one, as soon as they reach the window of the Immigration Department, there would be a new future.
-quoted from HKAGA writer Carol Yuan
In the monochrome graphite works of Kwong San Tang, I read the collision of despair and hope.
Tang’s works mainly recreate his personal memory and that of a generation of Hong Kong people: the Chinese immigrants who smuggled themselves to Hong Kong by water in the last century in search of freedom. The overall color palette of the work is gray and black, and at one glance I could feel a sense of dreary despair, just as the immigrants who drifted about in the sea had experienced. Yet the process was a hopeful one, as soon as they reach the window of the Immigration Department, there would be a new future.
-quoted from HKAGA writer Carol Yuan
Kwong San Tang
Kwong San Tang
Kwong San Tang (b.1992) was born in China and now lives in Hong Kong. He received his BA in Fine Arts from RMIT University, Australia, in 2019. His practice combines photographs, drawings, objects and videos that trace intergenerational family memories and social history. Through reorganising and reinterpreting old belongings, family photo albums and documents in a range of media, Tang explores the subtle, intricate and complex connections between longing, loss and belonging. He has had solo exhibitions at Gallery Exit and Hidden Space. He has been included in several group exhibitions, Pao Galleries; Goethe-Institut; and Contemporary by Angela Li, amongst others.
Dimensions
Whitestone Ginza New Gallery will be holding a group exhibition entitled "Dimensions", featuring the works of seven young artists who just graduated this year and last year from the Tokyo University of the Arts, Tokyo Zokei University, and the Tohoku University of Art and Design. Part 1 will be held from 27 August to 11 September 2021, while Part 2 will be held from 17 September to 2 October 2021. Each artist's personality and style will adorn the white cube space, coming together as one and unleashing new possibilities. We invite you to take this opportunity to discover a new generation of artists.
Karen Shiozawa
Karen Shiozawa (1998-, Japan)
Being aware of the real world that self-consciousness cannot visually acknowledge, people are living wrapped in the texture of shadow that made when the world is lightened.
Those who encounter works of Karen Shiozawa realize the myriad of worlds possibly exist, conceive longing and nostalgia for immeasurable bright expanding that could be seen between the world, and enable to open many doors of imagination.
Those who encounter works of Karen Shiozawa realize the myriad of worlds possibly exist, conceive longing and nostalgia for immeasurable bright expanding that could be seen between the world, and enable to open many doors of imagination.
Karen Shiozawa
Karen Shiozawa
Karen Shiozawa spent several years of her youth in the Netherlands and currently studies at The Graduate School of Tokyo Zokei University.
Shiozawa has been seeking to expand the fields of communication mediated through her works.
While projecting her memories of youth and everyday feelings into the two-dimensional works and aiming to represent the world sensed by other than vision, she has been cultivating the ways of expression interacted with sound, light, and three-dimensions.
Yoshiki Kikuno
Yoshiki Kikuno (1998-, Japan)
I still vividly remember feeling something strange when I first saw the bold brush strokes on Kikuno's paintings. It was something you would never imagine just from a superficial observation: the strokes themselves were casting shadows. When I read the artwork's description and found out that it was made using silkscreen printing, I was even more surprised.
Silkscreen printing is a technique normally used to create several copies of the same design. It historically developed as a method for conveying printed information to a large number of people. Needless to say, using this technique to create three-dimensional prints takes a huge amount of time. My first impression of Kikuno's work was that it was created by someone so committed to their style that they would disregard the intended purpose of their chosen technique.
When I got to talk to the artist himself, I learned that he never uses the same stencil for more than one artwork.
In this day and age where much value is placed on high productivity, he has pursued an approach that goes strongly against that notion. In my career as a gallerist, it has been quite rare for me to meet such an artist whom I absolutely wanted to introduce to my art collectors.
Silkscreen printing is a technique normally used to create several copies of the same design. It historically developed as a method for conveying printed information to a large number of people. Needless to say, using this technique to create three-dimensional prints takes a huge amount of time. My first impression of Kikuno's work was that it was created by someone so committed to their style that they would disregard the intended purpose of their chosen technique.
When I got to talk to the artist himself, I learned that he never uses the same stencil for more than one artwork.
In this day and age where much value is placed on high productivity, he has pursued an approach that goes strongly against that notion. In my career as a gallerist, it has been quite rare for me to meet such an artist whom I absolutely wanted to introduce to my art collectors.
Yoshiki Kikuno
Yoshiki Kikuno
Graduated in 2021 from the Tokyo Zokei University, Painting Major. He is currently pursuing graduate studies in the same university.
The silkscreen printing technique he uses in his artwork has the quality of being indirect and iterative. By taking one-shot techniques such as hand drawing and brush strokes through a silkscreen, a synergy between the singular quality and multiplicity arises. Through his artworks, he seeks to explore the relationship between the mass-produced patterns common in the world today and the singular elements inside them.
His artworks comprise of a base layer with a printed pattern, which is then covered with multiple coats of an image of brush strokes applied through a silkscreen. This has the effect of recreating the flat but unique brush strokes as a material that can be replicated multiple times.
Miyako Terakura
Miyako Terakura (1994-, Japan)
Japanese Kawaii culture has gained a large following around the world, especially in Asia. But in the world of fine arts, the vital part lies in what's hidden inside the "kawaii" exterior. I feel that there is something special hidden inside Terakura's works.
I first saw her ceramic works in the graduation exhibition of the Tokyo University of the Arts. She combined slip casting and hand shaping techniques to create several child-like dolls with similar facial expressions. But to me, each one appeared as a unique individual with a completely different emotion. They were like the little girls drawn by the famous Yoshitomo Nara, their seeming innocence being a special message in itself. I believe that the joy in collecting art comes from the message or "power" you get from each item. I am quite confident that anyone who looks at Terakura's works will understand what I mean.
I first saw her ceramic works in the graduation exhibition of the Tokyo University of the Arts. She combined slip casting and hand shaping techniques to create several child-like dolls with similar facial expressions. But to me, each one appeared as a unique individual with a completely different emotion. They were like the little girls drawn by the famous Yoshitomo Nara, their seeming innocence being a special message in itself. I believe that the joy in collecting art comes from the message or "power" you get from each item. I am quite confident that anyone who looks at Terakura's works will understand what I mean.
Miyako Terakura
Miyako Terakura
Born in 1994 in Gifu Prefecture. She graduated from the Tokyo University of the Arts in 2017, and completed the university's Master's program in Crafts (Ceramics) in 2020. In 2018, she studied at the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Fine Arts in Poland for half a year.
She combines slip casting and hand shaping techniques to create porcelain sculptures of babies and young children. Babies and young children are a symbol of innocence, and every person in the world was once one. By projecting the thoughts and feelings of the people living in this chaotic world into the sculptures, she hopes to make them convey a prayer. It is her wish that as the sculptures are fired and the porcelain hardens, they become vessels that draw in the prayers of people.
Shiori Gushiken
Shiori Gushiken (1998-, Japan)
I have a daughter who is very particular about being cute, from her clothes, shoes, nails, hair, and pose, to the colors and design of her belongings. She wants everything that expresses herself to be "girly". At this very moment, countless girls in the world are probably striving to find new ways of being cute and pretty.
Gushiken's work for her graduation exhibition is like a large mural with a "girly" quality. When I first saw it, it was as if I could hear the little girl inside of her screaming. More than anything, it had a very cute personality.
Many years ago, Coco Chanel fought the social norms and rules that limited the freedom women had in choosing their fashion. Just as Chanel contributed greatly to attaining the freedom women have today, I believe that Gushiken's artwork has the potential to emancipate women from the biases and labels that still remain in society.
The female characters that appear in Gushiken's artwork are illustrated in a cute, pop art style. It is probably her way of seeking what it means to be "girly" without regard for what the world thinks.
The idea of ignoring social stereotypes about what girls should be like, and that fashion or figure does not matter as long as you find it cute is probably an important perspective to understand in order to enjoy being "girly".
It is my hope that Gushiken's work will help break down social barriers and give young girls of the future the true freedom to choose their own styles and fashion. I pray for the victory of this cute modern day Joan of Arc.
Gushiken's work for her graduation exhibition is like a large mural with a "girly" quality. When I first saw it, it was as if I could hear the little girl inside of her screaming. More than anything, it had a very cute personality.
Many years ago, Coco Chanel fought the social norms and rules that limited the freedom women had in choosing their fashion. Just as Chanel contributed greatly to attaining the freedom women have today, I believe that Gushiken's artwork has the potential to emancipate women from the biases and labels that still remain in society.
The female characters that appear in Gushiken's artwork are illustrated in a cute, pop art style. It is probably her way of seeking what it means to be "girly" without regard for what the world thinks.
The idea of ignoring social stereotypes about what girls should be like, and that fashion or figure does not matter as long as you find it cute is probably an important perspective to understand in order to enjoy being "girly".
It is my hope that Gushiken's work will help break down social barriers and give young girls of the future the true freedom to choose their own styles and fashion. I pray for the victory of this cute modern day Joan of Arc.
Shiori Gushiken
Shiori Gushiken
Born in 1998 in Okinawa Prefecture. She graduated from the Tohoku University of Art and Design, Oil Painting Course. She is currently pursuing a Master's degree at the Tohoku University of Art and Design Graduate School, Specialty in Culture and the Arts (Paintings Field).
In recent years, the importance of recognizing diverse social values and perspectives has gained much awareness. Interacting with viewpoints and values that are different from our own allows us to reflect on our own identity, and this act in itself diversifies our values. From my childhood to my adolescence, I had many worries and doubts about myself. Now as an artist, I recall all those emotions and turn them into artworks. I believe that by creating artworks from one's own experiences, we can confront our own emotions, regardless of how strong or how many they may be. By using a girly painting style and structure, I hope to let viewers appreciate the work purely while giving them an opportunity to ponder and recognize the existence of different perspectives with a non-confrontational, accepting attitude.
Ariha Imamiya
Ariha Imamiya (1996-, Japan)
Drawing paintings to the tune of classical music. It was in the graduation exhibition of the Tokyo University of the Arts where I saw, heard, and felt Imamiya's art installation.
Inside that space, I was experiencing a totally new way of enjoying a musical performance.
It is the symbiosis of music and visual art. How this new genre will establish itself is still beyond the definite realm of understanding.
Perhaps it will be through enormous amounts of trial and error and an accumulation of experimental works that it will develop as a new medium of artistic expression.
I love music. It lifts me up in times of sadness, and makes me want to shout in times of longing. Music has the power to shake your senses, or even touch you emotionally in a way that affects your life decisions.
What if you add a visual and spatial experience to music? Conversely, what if you create music that is deeply influenced by a visual art form? The establishment of this new artistic genre that combines music and visual art is probably hinged on the success of Imamiya's career as an artist.
Imamiya not only creates static art in a studio. She can also leverage the transitory nature of music to create artworks through performances.
Turning transitory art such as music and performance into a permanent, physical art, or creating an interplay between music and space through a physical work of art. Further beyond, this art form will probably have great influence on artistic expression in the 22nd or 23rd century. Which is why I eagerly look forward to Imamiya's future as an artist.
Inside that space, I was experiencing a totally new way of enjoying a musical performance.
It is the symbiosis of music and visual art. How this new genre will establish itself is still beyond the definite realm of understanding.
Perhaps it will be through enormous amounts of trial and error and an accumulation of experimental works that it will develop as a new medium of artistic expression.
I love music. It lifts me up in times of sadness, and makes me want to shout in times of longing. Music has the power to shake your senses, or even touch you emotionally in a way that affects your life decisions.
What if you add a visual and spatial experience to music? Conversely, what if you create music that is deeply influenced by a visual art form? The establishment of this new artistic genre that combines music and visual art is probably hinged on the success of Imamiya's career as an artist.
Imamiya not only creates static art in a studio. She can also leverage the transitory nature of music to create artworks through performances.
Turning transitory art such as music and performance into a permanent, physical art, or creating an interplay between music and space through a physical work of art. Further beyond, this art form will probably have great influence on artistic expression in the 22nd or 23rd century. Which is why I eagerly look forward to Imamiya's future as an artist.
Ariha Imamiya
Ariha Imamiya
Graduated from the Tokyo University of the Arts, Department of Intermedia Art in 2021. She is currently pursuing a Master's degree in the Tokyo University of the Arts, Graduate School of Film and New Media.
In the 69th Tokyo University of the Arts Graduation Works Exhibition held in the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum in January 2021, she presented a video installation that included her own paintings.
Some of the exhibitions she has joined include the 15th Geidai Art Plaza Awards held in Ueno and the OPEN STUDIO 2021 held in Yokohama. Her works are characterized by color gradients and cryptic lines translated from music. In this exhibition, she presents an art installation where several paintings represent different bars of a main melody, and their placement in a line expresses a single musical piece.
Since her undergraduate years specializing in contemporary music and art, she has kept a synesthetic approach that is based on the idea of "listening to paintings".
Manaka Sakamoto
Manaka Sakamoto (1998-, Japan)
We have dreams every day. Happy dreams, dreams about family, touching dreams. Not only good dreams, but also lonely dreams, horrific dreams, lewd dreams, and even fighting dreams. Every person in the world has all kinds of dreams.
Sakamoto's artworks are in essence quite grotesque. Severed hands and heads, blood. Most people would be horrified if they saw these images in real life. But my impression of Sakamoto's paintings is one of beauty.
The seemingly grotesque images are drawn in such a way that makes you see beauty. I was quite impressed with the remarkable way she can walk the fine line between beauty and the macabre.
If we liken it to dreams, grotesque dreams can be fun and pleasant. There is no need to feel pain from them.
From Sakamoto's works, one can learn the sensibility that the grotesque can easily transform into a world of beauty. A tarot card reading offers both positive and negative aspects, but it is nevertheless a beautiful art that dares you to challenge the future. I feel that Sakamoto's paintings can play the role of a tarot card reading.
I’d like to cite two related impressions from the works of two great artists － Andy Warhol's "Electric Chair": By seeing a tragic object repeatedly, one gets used to it and no longer sees the tragedy in it. And Ronald Ventura's works: In reality, most of humanity is hurting.
In this pandemic, we may be facing a tragic future where most of humanity is hurting.
Looking at Sakamoto's paintings, if you try to find the beauty in the macabre, the light in the darkness, then I believe that her works can serve as a cure, a vaccine if you will, something that the world needs right now. I wish to support her as I look forward to her future works.
Sakamoto's artworks are in essence quite grotesque. Severed hands and heads, blood. Most people would be horrified if they saw these images in real life. But my impression of Sakamoto's paintings is one of beauty.
The seemingly grotesque images are drawn in such a way that makes you see beauty. I was quite impressed with the remarkable way she can walk the fine line between beauty and the macabre.
If we liken it to dreams, grotesque dreams can be fun and pleasant. There is no need to feel pain from them.
From Sakamoto's works, one can learn the sensibility that the grotesque can easily transform into a world of beauty. A tarot card reading offers both positive and negative aspects, but it is nevertheless a beautiful art that dares you to challenge the future. I feel that Sakamoto's paintings can play the role of a tarot card reading.
I’d like to cite two related impressions from the works of two great artists － Andy Warhol's "Electric Chair": By seeing a tragic object repeatedly, one gets used to it and no longer sees the tragedy in it. And Ronald Ventura's works: In reality, most of humanity is hurting.
In this pandemic, we may be facing a tragic future where most of humanity is hurting.
Looking at Sakamoto's paintings, if you try to find the beauty in the macabre, the light in the darkness, then I believe that her works can serve as a cure, a vaccine if you will, something that the world needs right now. I wish to support her as I look forward to her future works.
Manaka Sakamoto
Manaka Sakamoto
Born in 1998. She graduated from the Tohoku University of Art and Design, Oil Painting Course in 2021. She won a distinction award for the Oil Painting Course during the graduation exhibition in 2020.
She has always had an inferiority complex regarding her appearance, which made her seek the true meaning of beauty. Be it outer beauty or inner beauty, she realized that every form of beauty coexists with ugliness, and one cannot exist without the other.
Her works focus on the human appearance, exposing the grotesque nature of ugliness, folly, and even beauty. She expresses these through the use of fine, delicate lines and pale, fragile colors produced by watercolor pencils.
Romana Machin Tanimura
Romana Machin Tanimura (1998-, Japan)
Pew pew pew! Clash!
When I was a kid, I played with toys and action figures together with my friends almost every day. Our heads were filled with stories of superheroes fighting against villains to protect the world. Each one of us was an accomplished scriptwriter in our own right.
The figures we had of Ultraman, Kamen Rider, and their monster adversaries were made of soft vinyl. They were our superheroes and our treasured possessions.
Romana's artworks are made of soft vinyl, her chosen medium, and they can make any boy explode with feelings of heroism. Romana admits that she came up with the idea from the Japanese superhero shows of the Showa era. Although there is a neotenic aspect to it, I believe that this is one of the trends of the current age.
In the Internet realm, the idea of the Metaverse, such as the one depicted in the movie "Ready Player One", has gained much attention. This indicates an emerging world view that is intrinsically linked with the concept of neoteny.
I sense that we are approaching an age where people cannot experience society or even communicate with each other without some kind of puerility.
Though this is just my own interpretation, I feel that Romana's heroic artworks that represent a new contemporary art form matches perfectly with a not-so-distant future where people idolize digital avatars and imitate their fashion. They probably even help lead the world into such a future.
This is one of my future expectations from her work.
So come and experience an avant-garde form of artistic expression, an art form predicated on the childhood fantasies of older artists.
When I was a kid, I played with toys and action figures together with my friends almost every day. Our heads were filled with stories of superheroes fighting against villains to protect the world. Each one of us was an accomplished scriptwriter in our own right.
The figures we had of Ultraman, Kamen Rider, and their monster adversaries were made of soft vinyl. They were our superheroes and our treasured possessions.
Romana's artworks are made of soft vinyl, her chosen medium, and they can make any boy explode with feelings of heroism. Romana admits that she came up with the idea from the Japanese superhero shows of the Showa era. Although there is a neotenic aspect to it, I believe that this is one of the trends of the current age.
In the Internet realm, the idea of the Metaverse, such as the one depicted in the movie "Ready Player One", has gained much attention. This indicates an emerging world view that is intrinsically linked with the concept of neoteny.
I sense that we are approaching an age where people cannot experience society or even communicate with each other without some kind of puerility.
Though this is just my own interpretation, I feel that Romana's heroic artworks that represent a new contemporary art form matches perfectly with a not-so-distant future where people idolize digital avatars and imitate their fashion. They probably even help lead the world into such a future.
This is one of my future expectations from her work.
So come and experience an avant-garde form of artistic expression, an art form predicated on the childhood fantasies of older artists.
Romana Machin Tanimura
Romana Machin Tanimura
Born in 1998 in Tokyo. She graduated from the Tohoku University of Art and Design, Oil Painting Course. She is currently pursuing a Master's degree in the Tohoku University of Art and Design Graduate School, Specialty in Culture and the Arts (Composite Art Field). In the university's graduation exhibition in 2020, she won a highest distinction award for the Oil Painting Course.
Three-dimensional soft vinyl artworks that depict fictional heroes and monsters of a two-dimensional world. Being fond of such soft vinyl items is in a sense a sign of puerility, and they probably serve a function similar to that of a security blanket. By making these soft vinyl characters into paintings, I want to let viewers see the beginnings of a new story. I want to create artworks that have some kind of influence on the context of art.