Shintaro Kago: Disconfiguration

Shintaro Kago 駕籠 真太郎 (JP)

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curated by YellowMenace (67+ images)

   WARNING: This post contains graphic depictions of displaced, dissected & mutilated human bodies. +18 Only!
  
   The art of Japanese manga artist & illustrator Shintaro Kago is a bizarre marriage between the cerebral, logic-defying labyrinths of MC Escher & the brutally shocking ero-guro masterpieces of Toshio Saeki. He is a uniquely original creative force, freely venturing out to the twisted & unpredictable fringes of our collective unconscious via narrative, drawing & short art videos.

   You can discover English versions of Kago's manga on Amazon/comiXology, including his most recent Dementia 21: Vol 2 available Feb 26, 2020

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Reina Koyano: Sole Fatale

Reina Koyano aka Viva la Reina (Japan/US)
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curated by YellowMenace (30+ images)

   Reina Koyano is a designer/illustrator from Japan who has found success by imagining beautiful women dressed in fashion based on basketball shoes. Her brand, Sole Fatale creates the ultimate fantasy pinups for sneakerheads. She is currently working in the US, exhibiting her art, attending events & getting a buttload of free kicks.
   Happy International Women's Day & Women's History Month!

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Celebrating International Women's Day & Women's History Month by profiling Female Artists!

▶ Check Out More FEMALE ARTISTS on YM Blog

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Dai Tamura: NBA Sketchbook

Dai Tamura (Japan)
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curated by YellowMenace (40+ images)

   Dai Tamura is a freelance illustrator from Japan whose love for basketball has changed his life. For a time, Dai was focused on caricature art, so much so that he came in 4th place at The International Society of Caricaturist Artists (ISCA) awards in 2015 & then became world champion in 2016. During that period, his art was very much typical caricature portraits with exaggerated features, however after winning the ISCA championship he changed to a more realistic, comic book style & he began focusing primarily on drawing NBA players.

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▶ Check Out More BASKETBALL ART on YM Blog

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Junko Mizuno: Whimsically Weird Women

Junko Mizuno 水野純子
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curated by YellowMenace (33+ images)

   Cute cartoon women, lactating breasts & food dominate much of Japanese illustrator Junko Mizuno's art. She is a self-taught artist who began at a young age drawing manga. She struggled on her own developing her style & making small zines into her late twenties when she finally published her first graphic novel, "Pure Trance".  

   Women's History Month is wrapping up but you can check out all my fav Asian female artists HERE.

Hikari Shimoda: Children of the World

Hikari Shimoda
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curated by YellowMenace (35+ images)

   Japanese artist, Hikari Shimoda has been creating portraits of pale, tiny-horned, orb-eyed children with vacant or morose expressions for the past 7 years. Her unmistakable style, along with her impressive output of over 100 paintings have earned her many international exhibitions, including 4 solo shows at the Corey Helford Gallery in Los Angeles & countless features in prestigious art magazines & blogs. 

   For all of March, I'm celebrating Women's History Month by featuring my favorite Asian female artists here on YellowMenace Blog. 

ART: Takashi Murakami - The 500 Arhats

Takashi Murakami 村上 隆: The 500 Arhats
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curated by Yellowmenace (34+ images)

   This exhibition focused on Takashi Murakami (村上 隆)'s recent work, mainly his epic "The 500 Arhats", a 3-meterhigh, 100-meter-long painting of the 500 enlightened followers (arhats) of Buddha, created in response to the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. Some large sculptural pieces & abstract paintings are also included.

Source: Mori Art Museum

ART: Takashi Murakami - Superflat Empire

Takashi Murakami 村上 隆
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curated by Yellowmenace (34 images)

   Takashi Murakami (村上 隆) is a prolific contemporary Japanese artist, born Feb 1, 1962. He creates paintings & sculpture, as well as what are conventionally considered commercial media; fashion, merchandise, film & animation.

Source: Wikipedia

ART: Tamura Yoshiyasu - Surreal Kanzashi

Tamura Yoshiyasu 田村吉康
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by Yellowmenace  (26 images)

   Tamura Yoshiyasu is a professional manga artist, painter & illustrator, born in Gunma, Japan, 1977. Since high school he has been drawing & in 2003, his first manga "Fudegami" was published in the popular monthly, Gekkan Shōnen Jump.

HAIKU Art Review: Tamura Yoshiyasu

Surreal kanzashi

Painter dreams up coy maiko

Better mind her claws

    As a painter, he has exhibited his works at Takashi Murakami's gallery Higari Zingaro, Basel, Taipei, Los Angeles, New York & Mexico City. He also collaborated with the fashion brand, McQ: Alexander McQueen for the 2014 winter collection.

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ART: Nekoshowgun (猫将軍) - Inked Wild Things

Nekoshowgun (猫将軍) - [66 Images / 3 Pages]

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   Nekoshogun is an illustrator who was born in Wakayama prefecture in 1982. She's expanded her popularity in Japan & also in the United States since she uploaded videos of her drawing process & her illustration has been used by the famous singer, Kyosuke Himuro. She recently published her own illustration book, Illustration Making & Visual Book

HAIKU Art Review: Nekoshowgun

Master of contrasts
Primal urges, black & white
Color's a sweet treat

Buy Nekoshowgun's Artbook on Amazon

Illustration Making & Visual Book (JP)

ART: Yosuke Ueno (上野陽介) - Kawaii Characters

Yosuke Ueno (上野陽介) - (28 Images)
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   Yosuke Ueno was born in Japan in 1977. He has been building his world since a young child & had his first solo show in Yamaguchi, Japan in 1994 at the young age of 16. Ueno's work has shown with some of the most established galleries, including major exhibitions in his home country of Japan at the Shimoni-Seki Museum & Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo. He recently had a solo show at Thinkspace Gallery

HAIKU Art Review: Yosuke Ueno

Fairytale characters

Surreal kawaii dreamscapes

Child's play DNA

   "My hope for a piece is to complete itself beyond my imagination."

ART: Hiroki Tsukuda (佃弘樹) - Malibu Mazes

Hiroki Tsukuda (佃弘樹) - (15 images)

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Representation: Nanzuka

   Japanese artist Hiroki Tsukuda (佃弘樹) works primarily with charcoal & ink to create sprawling architectural dreamscapes. Born in Kagawa in 1978, he graduated from the Department of Imaging Arts & Sciences at Musashino Art University.

HAIKU Art Review: Hiroki Tsukuda

Eerie puzzle places

Luxury Lynchian Mazes

Architects' inkblots

ART: Hajime Sorayama (空山基) - Objets de Fétichisme

Hajime Sorayama (空山基) - (14 works)

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   Japanese painter Hajime Sorayama found fame in the 80s with skillfully executed, highly fetishized airbrushed portraits of sexy female forms. His "objets de fetish" quickly found their way into American men's magazines Playboy & Penthouse, from there he went on to illustrate movie posters, album covers & other ads for various international brands.

HAIKU Art Review: Hajime Sorayama

Corporate sponsors

Want more S&M taboo

Fetishized females

   Some of Sorayama's art is cringe inducingly sexist, but his images are so seductive, so technically masterful that he draws the viewer into his world. There is love &/or passion in his art. He lovingly objectifies women, he passionately fetishizes them & the results are fantastic guilty pleasures.

ART: Tadanori Yokoo (横尾 忠則) - Groovy Graphics Master

Tadanori Yokoo (横尾 忠則)

  While I usually try to focus on contemporary Asian art it's always hep to pay tribute to some of the masters, the giants who have made waves so massive the ripples are still being felt today. 

   Tadanori Yokoo, born in Nishiwaki, Japan, in 1936, is one of Japan's most successful & influential graphic designers & artists. He began his career as a stage designer for avant garde theatre in Tokyo & was close friends with Ken Takakura. 

HAIKU Art Review: Tadanori Yokoo

Groovy graphic style
Limitless pop collages
Optical Orgasms

   Akira Kurosawa & writer Yukio Mishima are two of Yokoo's most formative influences.

ART: Hajime Sorayama (空山基) - Chrome Fetbots

Hajime Sorayama (空山基)
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   Japanese painter Hajime Sorayama found fame in the 80s with skillfully executed, highly fetishized airbrushed portraits of sexy female forms. His "objets de sexe" quickly found their way into American men's magazines Playboy & Penthouse, from there he went on to illustrate movie posters, album covers & other ads for various international brands. In this century, he has collaborated with fashion designers Mark Ecko & Stussy. Below is concept art commissioned by George Lucas for a Star Wars project.

ART: HR-FM - Inexterior

HR-FM (Hirofumi Sugimoto)
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   All's Right w/ the World - Fine Art Print

HAIKU Art Review: HR-FM

Ex/interior
Tortured texture dominates
Dynamic decay

   Pet Destroyer - Fine Art Print

   "By pairing incompatible time bases to create scenes I call 'the future past', I express both surprise and recollection."

ART: Yumiko Kayukawa (粥川由美子) - pt 4: Ceremony

Yumiko Kayukawa (粥川由美子)

 part 4: Ceremony

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Hardcover Artbook: 95 works (2006-12)
 
YUMIKO KAYUKAWA: JAPANESE WOLF

   Here is part 4 of my 4 part profile of the unique self portrait paintings by Japanese artist Yumiko Kayukawa.

1 - Animal Lover  |  2 - Sexy  |  3 - Weirdest

ART: Hisashi Tenmyouya (天明屋尚) - Future via Past

Hisashi Tenmyouya (天明屋尚)

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   Hisashi is one of Japan's most influential & popular contemporary painters. His work is currently showing at the following gallery, if you'd like to witness the kind of painstaking detail he puts into his art:

Garden of Unearthly Delights 
 Oct 10, 2014 – Jan 11, 2015
@ The Japan Society Gallery - 333 East 47th St, New York

HAIKU Art Review: Hisashi Tenmyouya (天明屋尚)

Forward thru the past
"Without Art I'd B no one"
Basara bastard

   Born in Tokyo, in February 1966.  Hisashi Tenmyouya is a Japanese self taught fine artist.

ART: Shintaro Kago (駕籠 真太郎) - Funny Girls

Shintaro Kago (駕籠 真太郎)
Funny Girls or Brutality thy name is Man
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Original 'Funny Girl' drawings for sale @ Akatako.net

ART: Hiroyuki Matsuura (松浦 浩之) - Plastic Toys

Hiroyuki Matsuura (松浦 浩之)
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HAIKU Art Review: Hiroyuki Matsuura (松浦 浩之)

Giant plastic toys
Hello anime portraits
Simplified cels sell

   Hiroyuki Matsuura was born in Tokyo in 1964. He joined Task Force Ltd. in 1984, where he worked mainly on graphic design projects, before starting to create his own works based on animated Japanese cartoon characters in 1999.

  "I create my work with the belief that Manga is a representative expression of Japanese art following in the wake of Ukiyo-e."

ART: Yumiko Kayukawa (粥川由美子) - pt 3: The Weirdest

Yumiko Kayukawa (粥川由美子)
 Part 3: The Weirdest

Official   -   Blog   -   FB   -   Tumblr

Hardcover Artbook: 95 works (2006-12)
 
YUMIKO KAYUKAWA: JAPANESE WOLF

   Here is part 3 of my 4 part profile of the unique self portrait paintings by Japanese artist Yumiko Kayukawa.

   1 - Animal Lover | 2 - Sexy | 4 - Ceremony