Teppei Ikehira who I introduced in takumist on Sep 9 participates in Art Expo MALAYSIA from Galerie Bruno Massa.
The expo will be held from Oct 12 to 14. If you happens to be in Kuala Lumpur, it is worth visiting to see his art pieces.
Art Expo Malaysia
MATRADE Exhibition and Convention Centre (MECC)
Jalan Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah,
50480 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Teppei Ikehira 池平撤兵
Teppei Ikehira, artist’s official site
“Sentō” means public baths in Japanese. Alessandro Bioletti, Italian Illustrator who has been living in Tokyo since 2015, chose this typique Japanese theme for his exhibition, currently being held at Makii Masaru Fine Arts until Oct 21st. The gallery is in the district where many public bathes are located. Though it is not primarily a reason of choosing this gallery, he sees the linkage between the theme and right location to be exhibited.
When I heard of the title of his exhibition, I immediately thought of “Thermae romae”, a Japanese manga series by Mari Yamasaki, in which the bathhouses culture in Roman era appeared in comparison with Japanese Sentō in modern day, but it was too brash to connect his Italian origin and the theme. Alessandro said there are several reasons that he came to be interested in “Sentō” and choose as the theme of his exhibition. “Sentō” was his first encounter about Japanese culture – getting into such a hot water and be in the same bath with many other naked men!! Before settled in Tokyo, he started visiting Japan 13 years ago. Being fascinated by public baths, he started exploring public baths in a different town every time he visited Japan.
Alessandro also pointed out the difference in the way having human relations and interactions between Italy and Japan. In Italy, people are more expressive, while Japanese is in general shyer, not easy to express oneself, therefore, getting know each other needs a bit of patience. With such a contrast, he has got more conscious in the aspect of people’s connections and it is reflected in his work in “Sentō” exhibition.
What amazing is his vivid and concise portray of people in bath room and dressing room. I can picture it clearly and feel like I am in the scene. Alessandro‘s sharp, observant eye is used for the chose of colors used in the work. He said that it is fully influenced by the old color faded signboards from 70s and 80s that he discovers in the daily life.
『肌競花の勝婦湯』豊原国周 画
His work reminds me Ukiyoe. In Edo era, the scene in public baths is a popular theme. Alessandro said that the composition and the way to describe the detail in Ukiyoe has fixed in his mind.
Alessandro is preparing for the next exhibition in June 2019 with a theme of “City boy”. He said that it will be held in a gallery in Harajuku by reflecting the theme.
His source of inspiration is a daily life. Once his appetite is caught, he search for it as he wants to know more. He sometime wonders what if he lived in Africa how his work would be differed. He is certainly not only one who wants to see how his work could be in Africa.
Alessandro Bioletti
Alessandro Bioletti
Born in Turin on 21st August 1986, Alessandro is a professional freelance Illustrator.
As a child, Alessandro loved to look through his grandfathers photo books of Japan and started taking a strong interest in the country and it’s culture. At 16 Alessandro began taking lessons in the Japanese language, and at 18 made his first voyage to the country. Alesandro has continued to travel and document his adventures through his drawings. Over the years these two passions have become intertwined and in December 2014 published his first children’s book “Mitsukete Alekun! Sekai No Tabi” (Find Mr.Ale Around The World) with the highly reputable Japanese publisher, Shogakukan.
In 2015 Alessandro left Italy and migrated to Tokyo, Japan where he now works as an illustrator for various advertising campaigns, editorials, picture books and a multitude of interesting projects for businesses worldwide.
For more info, please go to his own site and canvas Tokyo
Bioletti
The apple…………it appeared in the story of Adam and Eve in Old testament as a forbidden fruit seducing human beings to indulge. Snow white faints after eating a poisonous apple. Wilhelm Tell shot an apple on his son’s head. Newton found law of universal gravitation while looking at an apple falling from a tree. Now the apple is in most people’s hands as a mark of smart phone. There is no other fruits than the apple that is universal and often appears in anecdotes in all ages.
The Fall of Man by Rubens
Yuji Ichikawa (Ichikawa) is an artist who is fascinated by the apple and often uses it as a theme in his artwork. I had a chance to visit his recent solo exhibition, “blue moment” at Saitama Gallery (埼玉画廊), which is unfortunately ended on September 24, but I would like to introduce some of his works.
“I see the apple, which is familiar object for everyone, could be a good tool to link to people’s memories through and trigger connecting people across time and place. ” – Yuji Ichikawa*
”私は、この誰もが知るリンゴを通じて記憶にリンクすることが、人が時間や場所を越えて繋がりを持つためのツールであると考えています。そして外界と繋がる意識によって、自己の再認識を果たすことが私の願いです。” ー市川裕司
He originally studied Japanese painting at Tama Art University, but his creation has moved to the field of contemporary art. Ichikwa himself, however, is not conscious about categorizing his filed. Ichikawa learnt from International Symposium on Japanese painting that the genre ‘Japanese painting’ was only created at Meiji era for convenience’s sake, when Japan opens the country and start exporting Japanese art and craftsmanship such as Ukiyoe, therefore, there is no clear definition in Japanese painting in terms of materials and tools and it lost its substance. The view opened up Ichikawa‘s approach to his work. He started thinking he could explore his art expression by using any kind of materials, that resulted his recent work using a transparent glass, plastic material and aluminum instead of Japanese paper that is less and less available。
As the tile of this exhibition, the most exhibited work is colored in blue. The blue is originated from his memory in his childhood. He was a light sleeper and often woke up in early morning. He, at such time, stared at the blue and silent world outside his window. The blue color before the dawn that he saw during his stay in Germany got his additional inspiration toward blue color. Ichikawa sees a landscape of his heart and an opening of new world in blue and it is reflected to the title of this exhibition, “blue moment”.
The size of the work at this solo exhibition was relatively small for Ichikawa‘s creations. He typically create up to the ceiling, large scale installation like seen in the SPIRAL exhibition in 2014. It is amazing to hear that he normally works in his 8 tatami mats size atelier (approx. 12.4 square meters) based on 1/10 scale rough sketch.
Source; Youtube, YUJI ICHIKAWA EXHIBITION 2014 SPIRAL 01
Ichikawa stayed from 2012 to 2013 in Dusseldorf in Germany as a Goto Memorial Foundation trainee. The experience during the period gets influenced his creative urge. Ichikawa said that the life in Germany inspired him to look into origin of life.
For his future work, he is interested in the concept of “borderless”. Envisioning the coming Tokyo Olympics in 2020, he is conscious about the relation between Japan and the world. Probing into what universal is, he is wondering the border such as a concept of nationality might disappear.
Ichikawa‘s work will be displayed at the entrance of new hotel opening in front of Yurakucho-station in Ginza area in December. I can’t wait to see it!
For Yuji Ichikawa‘s biography and works, please visit his website.
Yuji Ichikawa with his work “目覚め木”（The waking tree**)
There are some artists that I occur to my mind and wonder how they are doing. Teppei Ikehira who I wrote about in the previous post is one of those. Ayumi Suzuki (Ayumi), who I am going to write about this time is another one of those artists. Interestingly, I wrote about both artists in my post on March 23, 2015, in which I wrote about Art Fair Tokyo.
“Dreaming”, Oil painting by Ayumi Suzuki
I happen to know that Ayumi has a solo exhibition entitled “the land” at Fei Art Museum Yokohama (Sept 19-29), so I went to see it and had an opportunity to speak with Ayumi over her exhibition and creation.
The style of work exhibited in “the land” is quite different from her work in my memory, which was an oil painting featuring a woman with girlish innocence and the background surrounding the woman was drawn to the detail. In contrast to the oil painting, her work in “the land” exhibition is mostly black and white and the motif is blurry.
Ayumi attempted using a water and acrylic paint about 5,6 years ago for the sake of searching for a different mode of expression. Initially it didn’t go so smoothly and she couldn’t find her style until about 3 years ago, when her parents asked her to draw papered sliding doors for a guest room in her parents’ house, she draw it with liquid sumi ink and the experience was in a sense liberating her and triggered her to start drawing a paper with liquid sumi ink.
“With different tool and method to deliver an output, a style of expression is different even if it comes from the same inspiration. “
In her oil painting, she tends to use a clear line, but with sumi ink, line is blurred and rough. She has a much better control with oil paint by adding paint and reconstructing it to be close to what she envisaged painting. Liquid sumi ink is, on the contrary, somewhat uncontrollable. It has unintended force. She needs to go with how the ink spreads and accept however the ink stained. She feels such output expresses her genuinenss.
A border between the usual and unusual or something like daydream is her favourite theme. She said that the use of liquid sumi ink changed the way she capture the theme. It gets more inward. The scenery and a person described get more blur and ambiguous. The land is described in her words as below and it becomes the tile of her work and exhibition.
“the land” is like a place of daydreaming, a mirror reflecting one’s emotion and thoughts , and a dream relaying to one’s unconsciousness.”
“そこは空想の土地であり、感情や思考を映す鏡のような場所でもあり、無意識と繋がった夢のようでもあります。”
Her solo exhibition, “the land” is being held in Fei Art Museum Yokohama until Sept 29, which is 5 min walk from Yokohama station.
Ayumi Suzuki solo exhibition "the land" Sept 19 (Wed)-29 (Sat) Fei Art Museum Yokohama Yokohama Tsuruyacho Bldg. 1F, Tsuruyacho 3-33-2, Kanagawa-ku, Yokohama city, Kanazawa prefecture 〒221-0835 tel. 045-411-5031 fax. 045-411-5032 e-mail：artmuseum@fukasaku.jp Opening hours：10：00 - 19：00 (~17:00 for 29th) Holiday: Monday
Mountain climbing is one of her hobbies. She brings back small things from mountain such as moss, a branches and stones and those become her source of inspirations. Ayumi has a plenty of ideas for future direction, could be oil painting on paper or animation capturing a longer time span and share it with viewers. I am looking forward to her evolution.
Ayumi Suzuki photographed with her work from “the land” exhibition
If you are interested in her other work, please go to her own site from here.
“I select what I purely want to paint. If I force myself to draw something I am unwilling, I would likely get bored. Forcing me is sometime not endurable.”
As Ikehira mentioned, his style is elastic. It flows to diversified directions with a various choice of motives, compositions and colours. It reflects his encounters in his life. Painting may be like his life itself.
Ikehira says that purchasing and hanging a piece of art is not the end of a journey for an appreciator, but is just a beginning.
Indeed, with versatile motives in his paintings, I have a new discovery, a new encounter and a new experience. It unnoticeably becomes a part of my memory and comes back with nostalgia. It is as if I am on a trip with a ticket handed by Ikehira in my hand and wondering where I am taken to. I certainly can’t wait to see it.
At Part I, I introduced Teppei Ikehara‘s art piece, titled ’They know their place’.
Ikehira told me that he started painting it with ‘a boy cuddling a tiger’. Can you locate the little boy? It is drawn at the lower part of left corner.
One day Ikehira brought back a stuffed tiger from neighbor restaurant to surprise his son expected to be home from school. Against the odds, the son started cuddling the tiger and that became an inspiration for Ikehira to start out the work.
Ikehira said that he normally doesn’t have full picture how he wants to finish a work when he started. The finished work is so to say a consequence of accumulated daily inspiration.
“I intuitively find a motif that interests me and carefully draw it with high concentration and in detail. I continuously find such interesting motifs from daily life, so I have a plenty of sources.”
Ikehira‘s inspiration comes from a slice of daily life. Interaction with his children, orange tree in his back yard, insects, birds coming to his house, a picture in a magazine he happens to read, etc, etc. Anything could be sufficient to keep his fire going.
Looking at countless motifs scattered like stars on canvas, my mind traveled with memories, was stimulated with new encounters and felt like dreaming. I may have had a some kind of simulated experience through Ikehira’s artwork.
Ikehira‘s work is exhibited at Corridor Gallery 34, Park Hotel Tokyo this month. Don’t miss the chance!
Teppei Ikehila TOKYO MERMAID PRINCESS
Date: September 1, 2018 (Sat.) – September 30, 2018 (Sun.)
Time: 11:00 a.m. ～ 5:00 p.m.
Place: Corridor Gallery 34, Park Hotel Tokyo (34F)
Fare: Admission Free
At the next post, I will touch on some more Ikehira‘s creations.
There are two pieces of oil painting by Teppei Ikehira (池平撤兵）hanging on the wall in my living room. One is a college of polar bear, salmon, blue and white colored ripples, flowers in red, pink and orange. Another is a collage of lots of titmouses, lots of pink tulips, fried eggs, a windmill, a little girl with a sort of European traditional costume like with blue sky with some white clouds on the back. How I describe his painting in detail, it would be hard to imagine how it looks like. The motifs in a canvas is so versatile. It is hard to believe such diversified and unrelated motifs can be harmonized in one frame.
He had his personal show in hpgrp GALLERY TOKYO until yesterday and I could be there barely in the last day.
居場所を知ったものたち They know their place 2016 242.0cm x 324.0cm oil on canvas
How many different objects do you find in the above painting. You may wonder by the choice of diversified motifs from animals, fishes, cakes, children, fried eggs, Onigiri (rice balls), fruits, juices, UFO, and so on. Depending on a place you pay attention, you have a different discovery. Even after spending sometime searchingly looking by part by part, I felt as if there is a new motif added one after another.
Ikehira told me that the way such versatile motifs be together in the canvas is just like what we are living in this world with numberless different living creatures. We have somehow a harmony to belong to one world. Ikehira said he draws each motif one by one with high concentration as if each creature lives one’s life with own faith.
”Ibasho (your place) is not necessary a defined space, but exists within the relations with surroundings. To be exact, Ibasho exists inner self and can be visualized by the relations with surroundings”
“居場所とは具体的な決まった空間のことではなく、周囲との関係性の中にある。さらにもっと正確にいうと居場所とは自分の内側にあり、周囲との関係性の中で可視化できるようになるものである”
戦場の産声 For The Babies At War 2017 162.0cm x 162.0cm Oil on canvas
OFFICIAL BLOG [http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/betterhalf20012001]
PORTFOLIO SITE [http://teppeiikehila.com]
OFFICE BACTERIA [http://office-bacteria.com]
I will write more about him at the next post so stay tuned!
