AOKI Yutaka
1985 born in Kumamoto
2010 M.F.A., Fine Arts major, Faculty of Fine Arts and Design, Graduate School , Tokyo Zokei University

For his paintings involving spray paint, Aoki Yutaka begins first with a flat, white base coat on canvas, then, using the same white paint mixed with medium, creates a mountain shape, using the barely visible paint texture as a guide, and finally completes it with a coat of silver or orange spray paint. He believes the essence of painting lies in the intermediate realm between the actuality of paint – such as the traces of brushstrokes – and images, which emerge from the surface layer of the spray paint. Conquering the frontality of painting, Aoki tries to put the human hand back into painting.

untitled
acrylic, spray, canvas, panel   162.0×162.0cm
2013   collection of the Artist
© the artist

ATSUCHI Tomoko
1984 born in Kyoto
2010 M.F.A., Painting Course, Department of Painting, Graduate School of Arts, Kyoto City University of Arts

Although the people depicted or the titles are evocative of overseas, a Japanese sensibility is consistently recognised in Atsuchi Tomoko’s oil paintings. The new works that recall backgrounds for stage sets are very similar. The scenery gives a crooked and conjectured impression, with a subtle touch, connecting to the struggle to express space that Japanese painters have worked with since the Meiji era. Complicated picture planes reflect the Japanese complex about, and longing for, Western culture, which is, however, never cynical. Her uniquely humorous approach is one of the strongest features of her work.

Comedy
oil on canvas   210.0×270.0cm
2013   collection of the Artist
© the artist   courtesy of taïmatz

CHIBA Masaya
1980 born in Kanagawa
2005 B.F.A., Oil Painting Course, Department of Painting, Faculty of Art and Design, Tama Art University

Chiba Masaya clearly demonstrates his unique perspective of and approach to painting both in the creation of his own works and in the way they are displayed. His works show various objects and creatures in the foreground of seemingly cluttered and chaotic settings. While he creates large-scale paintings, he also creates installation works that often consist of arrangements of his own paintings installed on stands, as if reproducing a view of his atelier. Many of the scenes depicted somehow remind us of temporary and transitory settings. Emphasising our physical senses, Chiba’s works open up new possibilities of painting.

A great man who wandered around like a dog
oil on canvas   145.0×100.0cm
2009   collection of Shiraki Satoshi and Kamata Michiyo
© the artist   courtesy of ShugoArts

ENOMOTO Koichi
1977 born in Osaka
2003 B.F.A., Department of Craft, Faculty of Art, Kanazawa College of Art

Various images fill the entire picture plane of Enomoto Koichi’s paintings. Enomoto thinks that it is impossible to understand the world surrounding us without a filter of images. He regards the world as a space with images drifting all around; he samples these images and adds some cartoon-like characters of his own creation to compose his works. Enomoto’s works provide a point where both globalism and localism coexist, an expression that clearly reflects the cultural situation in the contemporary era.

Rejoice!!! Fight against your DEATH!!!
oil on canvas   227.3×181.8cm
2011   collection of Masamichi Katayama / Wonderwall®
© the artist   courtesy of TARO NASU

FUKUNAGA Daisuke
1981 born in Tokyo
2004 B.F.A., Oil Painting Course, Department of Painting, Faculty of Art and Design, Tama Art University

Fukunaga Daisuke affectionately paints motifs such as worn-out mops, discarded tyres and carelessly strewn-about road cones. Run-down places and empty lots serve as the stage sets suitable for such motifs in his paintings. Outlying scenes of turbulent eeriness and a sense of nihilistic decline must result largely from the unique colour tone, which contains a feeling of sorrow in some way. Fukunaga must fully understand that a strong humanity and the true nature of existence come through in such situations.

Wheels
oil on canvas   218.2×291.0cm
2014   collection of the Artist
© the artist   courtesy of Tomio Koyama Gallery

FUNO Nana
1983 born in Shizuoka
2008 M.F.A., Painting Course, Department of Painting, Graduate School of Arts, Kyoto City University of Arts

More than anything else, the characteristics of Funo Nana’s paintings are their matière and textures. What she illustrates is mainly decorative patterns of animals, plants, people, landscapes, and letters. They are portrayed densely, delicately and deliberately all over the picture plane. These images originate from her drawing notebook in which she recorded her sentiments and emotional ups and downs; these personal experiences and values become sublimated into a universalistic time and perspective of the world in the tableau where they are unfolded.

One Eye is the Eye of Bird; the Other is the Eye of Insect
acrylic on canvas   227.5×324.0cm
2013   collection of the Artist
© the artist   courtesy of Tomio Koyama Gallery

IMAI Shunsuke
1978 born in Fukui
2004 M.F.A., Painting, Fine Arts Course, Graduate School of Art and Design, Musashino Art University

Imai Shunsuke’s colourful picture planes made of intricately complicated layers of colours in evenly painted acrylic give the illusion of flags waving in the wind, although, of course, that physical depth does not exist. While it’s true that Imai’s illusionistic paintings strongly resemble optical art, this belies the meaning and content of what’s depicted, which is the real feature of his work. While sincerely exploring the fundamental meanings of “seeing” and the potential of flat planes, it can be said that his work also questions the emptiness of images and information in contemporary society.

untitled
acrylic on canvas   51.5×45.0cm
2013   collection of Shiraki Satoshi and Kamata Michiyo
© the artist   courtesy of HAGIWARA PROJECTS

IWANAGA Tadasuke
1979 born in Saga
2008 ph.D., Oil Painting, Painting Major, Graduate School of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts

In his works, Iwanaga Tadasuke considers that subtle information, which can only be received through colour, considerably affects us and opens our senses. The works, which seem like an ineffable and dense atmosphere turned directly into painting, illuminate the artist’s unequivocal trajectory in life. He has been working actively, coming and going through 3 fields of painting, music and manga, without being pigeonholed by any one expression.

Fivecolors feathers wings scales
oil on canvas   99.8×72.6×3.0cm
2012   collection of the Artist
© the artist   courtesy of ShugoArts

KANO Shinichiro
1982 born in Tokyo
2007 B.F.A., Oil Painting Course, Department of Fine Arts, Faculty of Art and Design, Nagoya Zokei University of Art and Design

Kano Shinichiro’s works proactively utilise illusionism and the suggestive power of the image. While sometimes looking similar to trompe l'oeil, they allude to the relationship between painting and viewer. Therefore, he often works in series and presents them as installation by positioning multiple pieces, non-chronologically, in contraposition and comparison. These ordinary and familiar devices, made new through the adaptation of ideas and expressions from older works in a process of clever quotation and switched meanings, speak a language of strange new concepts to the viewer.

appreciation
oil on canvas   91.2×72.9cm
2013   collection of the Artist
© the artist   courtesy of ShugoArts

KONISHI Toshiyuki
1980 born in Hiroshima
2007 M.F.A., Painting, Fine Arts Course, Graduate School of Art and Design, Musashino Art University

All the figures Konishi Toshiyuki paints are based on photos of his family. His recent works have especially intensified in their abstraction, and the humorous, primitive figures painted with single-stroke boldness and improvising brushstrokes evoke the realm of myth and legend. With the representation of the family, the smallest constituent unit in a society and something very personal to the artist, he tries to express universal human relationships, time, places, memories, and so on.

untitled
oil on canvas   145.5×112.0cm
2012   collection of the Artist
© the artist   courtesy of ARATANIURANO

KUDO Makiko
1978 born in Aomori
2002 B.F.A., Oil Painting Course, Department of Painting, Faculty of Fine Arts, Joshibi University of Art and Design

In the enigmatic imagined scenes painted by Kudo Makiko, everyday encounters are brought to life through a filter of imagination in beautiful harmony. All of the painted figures are for her familiar and beloved: girls, small animals, and flowers. At first glance, there is a strong sense of girlishness, but on the other hand, her solid and exceptional skill in depiction and expression is evident, such as in her treatment of depth and background and the mixture of multiple perspectives. An elegance suggestive of classic paintings can even be felt.

Dog and cat
oil on canvas   130.0×162.0cm
2011   collection of the Artist
© the artist   courtesy of Tomio Koyama Gallery

MASADA Takeshi
1977 born in Osaka
2003 M.F.A., Painting Course, Department of Painting, Graduate School of Arts, Kyoto City University of Arts

Utilising already extant images, the paintings of Masada Takeshi require some kind of interpretation from the viewer. By extracting scenes from Hollywood movies, TV programs, and documentary photographs of historical events, and obscuring the facial expressions of the figures, his paintings work on the viewer’s consciousness and memories, stimulating the sense of deja vu. Masada’s paintings, in which the narratives evoked by images and the materiality of paint coexist, are an approach to the possibility of expression in our current media society.

March of HAITOKUKAN: Peeping OK, C'mon
oil on canvas   117.0×91.0cm
2012   collection of Kanno Naoki
© the artist   courtesy of Wako Works of Art

MATSUBARA Soshiro
1980 born in Hokkaido
2005 B.F.A., Oil Painting Course, Department of Painting, Faculty of Art and Design, Tama Art University

In this image-saturated contemporary world, where painterly expression can easily come into existence with paper and paints, Matsubara Soshiro seems to discover the possibility of painting in any situation. For him, a handbag painted like a print presents opportunities for painterly expression. Thus, in this era when anything goes in painting, Matsubara offers a positive outlook, and may be trying to reach back to a primitive state of painting with a flexible sensibility, eschewing the vociferous questioning of the nature of painting.

untitled (grid tote bag)
acrylic on canvas   80.0×60.0cm
2013   collection of the Artist
© the artist

MOCHIZUKA Miki
1974 born in Shizuoka
1999 B.A., Department of design, Tokoha Gakuen Junior Collage

Early in his career, Mochizuka Miki showed rather mellow, fairy-tale figurative paintings depicting animals such as deer and horses in forest settings. Originally, his production process did not involve painting actual objects, but rather relied on his imagination and memories to weave together scenes conjured up from his mind. Through painting, he tried to give shape to light, which has no shape, then succeeded in creating images without concrete figures or metaphorical expressions, simply from the accumulation of abstract brush marks.

light sleep
oil on canvas   100.0×80.5cm
2012   Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum
© the artist   courtesy of MISAKO & ROSEN

NAKAZONO Koji
1989 born in Kanagawa
2012 B.F.A., Oil Painting course, Department of Painting, Faculty of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of Arts

Despite his young age, born in 1989, Nakazono Koji is developing early, maturing in free-spirited creative activity, excelling in large and small pieces, using painting materials besides oil paints, such as crayons, and showing a variety of colour expressions, from monochrome to a range of colour use. Nakazono boldly depicts “scenery which he wanted to see himself” on canvas while showing complete trust and love in the possibilities of painterly expression, dauntlessly upheld by solid technique.

Untitled
oil on canvas   53.0×41.0cm
2014   collection of the Artist
© the artist   courtesy of Tomio Koyama Gallery

OHNO Satoshi
1980 born in Gifu
2004 B.F.A, Painting major, Department of Fine Arts, Faculty of Zokei, Tokyo Zokei University

Ohno Satoshi explores time, conflict and the fusion of natural and artificial, using symbols such as primeval forests, self-portraits, androgyny and prisms. The works that feature primeval forests and androgyny exude an impression that can only be described as magical. On the other hand, the piece showing a prism, painted with a sense of rich, contemporary verve, shows a symbol of a facetious contemporary society, full of vanity, brightly refracting light. On the picture plane various fluorescent colours collide in such a way as to cause a halation effect, revealing the height of artificial beauty while referencing research in optics.

PRISM Bye Bye Sunset
oil, acrylic on canvas mounted on panel   300.5×728.5cm
2013   Takahashi collection
© the artist   courtesy of Tomio Koyama Gallery

OSA Seiichiro
1985 born in Shizuoka
2011 M.F.A., Oil Painting, Painting Major, Graduate School of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts

Osa Seiichiro, noted for his paintings depicting objects and anime-like characters in pop colours, as well as installation works, has been active in abstract painting since about 2011. The diagonal lines and arcs on the surface of his paintings seem to consist of an unvarying pattern, but are actually effected freehand, forming a kind of doubled image that evokes the multilayered depth and traces of time. His improvisational method often takes the form of live painting in the streets.

Untitled
oil on canvas   227.3×181.8cm
2014   collection of the Artist
© the artist

SOUTOME Teppei
1980 born in Tochigi
2004 B.F.A, Painting major, Department of Fine Arts, Faculty of Zokei, Tokyo Zokei University

Soutome Teppei’s painting is formed by layers of diluted paints applied to the surface of the canvas without any base coating nor drafts, though, at a glance, they appear like multiple separate colour planes juxtaposed on the picture plane. Instead of with contour lines, here line is portrayed by the boundaries of the colour planes revealing the colour of the lower layer. He consistently pursues the possibilities of colour in painting, such as attempting to combine colours freely without being limited to local colour.

Saturn
acrylic on canvas   116.5×116.5cm
2011   private collection
© the artist   courtesy of Aoyama Meguro

TAKAGI Daichi
1982 born in Gifu
2010 M.F.A., Oil Painting Course, Painting Major, Graduate School, Tama Art University

Takagi Daichi produces unique works from the perspective of the expression of figure. Takagi’s strong interests in background, figure, the framework of painting and space are aptly illustrated in his still lifes of pots, bottles and circular cones shaded and highlighted, and placed against black backgrounds, or in pieces where the frames of rectangles or other indefinite shapes are painted on shaped canvases or very tall, long canvases. The former have a surrealist-like atmosphere, exhibiting an asceticism and sense of calm similar to the still lifes of Georgio Morandi.

window
oil on canvas   65.1×53.0cm
2013   collection of the Artist
© the artist   courtesy of KAYOKOYUKI

TAKAHASHI Daisuke
1980 born in Saitama
2005 B.F.A, Painting major, Department of Fine Arts, Faculty of Zokei, Tokyo Zokei University

The works of Takahashi Daisuke remind me that, before image, painting is composed of material and substance. In contrast with its appearance, which evokes storminess and a sense of exaltation, a calm mind emanates through the work, and while Takahashi Daisuke’s work refers to parts of both Western and Eastern art history, painting, or paint itself, is the subject. Clumps of paints layered over like mountains are sensual in some way and give of a feeling of vitality, yet these clumps re-question the relationship between paint and its supporting body, and shakes off the stereotype of painting as a flat surface.

untitled (Madonna)
oil on wooden panel   25.0×26.0cm
2012-13   Nigauri collection
© the artist   courtesy of HARMAS GALLERY

TAKEZAKI Kazuyuki
1976 born in Kochi
1999 B.F.A., Faulty of Education, Kochi University

Takezaki Kazuyuki cuts out his own drawings and arranges, pastes, and adds things he has encountered from places he has visited, using them as materials and as the support. The work sets out to give forms to indescribable, delicate memories of his experience of landscapes, yet also introduces elements that dissolve the separation of genres such as painting, drawing and sculpture. It inevitably approaches a hypothetical and transitory installation, embodying the concepts of transference, traveling and time, while his original sense of realism and lyricism remain within.

67 V
acrylic on used weather door, used window, canvas, oil paint
199.0×170.5cm
2013   collection of the Artist
© the artist   courtesy of MISAKO & ROSEN

YAEGASHI Yui
1985 born in Chiba
2011 M.F.A., Fine Arts major, Faculty of Fine Arts and Design, Graduate School ,Tokyo Zokei University

Yaegashi Yui replicates abstract visual images, derived from other sources than paintings, such as textile patterns and designs, into her paintings. In order to do so, she goes through the process in a dispassionate manner like a daily routine: carefully checking every procedure of affixing canvas, choosing paints, deciding what tools to use and how to implement the design. Perhaps such persistency and severity brings a kind of sublimity to her work. Human warmth can even be felt from its simplicity, where hand-drawn marks show through.

manner
oil on canvas   19.0×27.5cm
2014   collection of the Artist
© the artist   courtesy of MISAKO & ROSEN

YOKONO Asuka
1987 born in Aichi
2013 M.F.A. Master’s course of Oil Painting and Woodcut Printing, Graduate School of Fine Arts, Aichi University of the Arts

Under a bleak sky, a mountain crest greatly and gently curves; the dam and its lake spread out underneath. Likewise, a strong feeling of physicality is elicited in the viewer by the sweeping of brush strokes across such large-scale, very tall and long, or very broad and wide surfaces. The systematic production process she employs, starting at the upper part of the canvas and painting downwards, develops an unintended texture contributing to the effect of the visualisation of space in the composition. This cold and indefinite space, where the texture of painting and mountain merge, is the unique world of Yokono Asuka - straddling the representational and abstract.

Dam
oil on canvas   259.0×194.0cm
2011   collection of the Artist
© the artist