Atsushi Kaga

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Atsushi Kaga (* 1978 in Tokyo ) is a Japanese mixed media artist. He produces art in the fields of painting , sculpture and plastic . He is also creative in printing and design. He currently lives in Dublin and New York. He regularly returns to Japan for exhibitions. In 2018 a solo exhibition can be seen in the MAHO KUBOTA GALLERY in Harajuku .

education

Work

Atsushi Kaga is a representative of the current Japanese art scene, which started in the 1990s. In terms of craftsmanship and content, it is based on the main concept of the decade: Superflat . Typical for this concept is a mixture of the styles of painting and comic art .

In the press release of the Jack Henley Gallery for the 2015 exhibition with over 100 of Kaga's works, his art is described as “fantastic and surreal”, “autobiographical” and, on closer inspection, as a window into a world that is “humorous, sardonic, nervous and full of unresponsive Questions Concerning the Human Condition ”is. Growing up with Japanese pop culture (manga, anime , merchandise ), he creates self-referential, culturally pessimistic, melancholy and at the same time infantile comforting narratives as a self-proclaimed otaku with his art and characters ( キ ャ ラ ク タ ー ). In these artistic utopias he gathers his anthropomorphic animal beings, which reflect human feelings.

Characters

His works create a self-contained microcosm with recurring characters, e.g. B. the rabbit ("Usacchi" or "Bunny"), which is considered the artist's self-portrait . The kangaroo represents its mother and the panda its father.

subjects

His works deal with topics such as isolation, paranoia, fears, identity formation, dependency / addictions, sexuality and death. While this content suggests a rather gloomy, serious atmosphere, the bizarre combination of these tragic moments in kawaii mode brings on the one hand a comforting distance that reflects the compulsive escape from reality of his generation, and on the other hand a strange amusing effect , ultimately based on gallows humor .

Exemplary image description »Can I Fill Your Void« (2009)

Can I Fill Your Void
Atsushi Kaga , 2009
Acrylic on canvas
150 × 100 cm

Link to the picture
(please note copyrights )

The picture from the Jean Pigozzi collection is painted with acrylic paints on canvas and measures one meter and a half. The most striking feature is a comic-like, anthropomorphic pink rabbit in the style of a children's book illustration with black ovals as eyes and the typical "anchor bow" as mouth. The hare fills almost the entire height of the picture, with its massive ears making up almost half of its visible body size - the figure is cut off in the middle of the thigh by the lower edge of the picture. There is hardly any division of the body. Even the huge ears sit almost seamlessly on the head.

The arms are designed like flexible plasticine without joints and have no recognizable fingers. They are slightly spread out in a hesitant gesture and, like the rest of the body and the hare's gaze, face an invisible third person outside the picture. The figure is shaded with black towards the back, giving it a subtle impression of plasticity.

The hare is surrounded by a bluish sheen, which, like the earth's atmosphere, forms a boundary layer between the pink and black of the background. On this background, celestial bodies are painted in childlike, naive representation with bright, partly fluorescent colors. Dozens of planets with and without rings, stars, nebulae, but also artificial objects such as satellites and even balloons, which, contrary to normal physics, seem to rise up in the "space" shown. You can also see a "squadron" made up of four pandas and another pair of them, which are only shown unpainted with pink lines. There are also smoky / cloudy rings, each with a conifer that grows on its top and that has a face with two large eyes and a mouth.

You can see two lettering on the picture. The first runs along the rabbit's ears and reads “Can I fill your void?” (“Can I fill your void?”). The second hangs like an invisible speech bubble directly above the rabbit's imaginary line of sight and reads “I will give you a hug.” (“I will hug you.”) Both lettering are also only painted with pink lines and black inside calmly. The letters have a certain thickness and a pseudo-3D effect through a repeated, stepped outline.

The ego, represented by the rabbit, "Usacchi", which should also refer to the author in other values, is puffed up and occupies the central space of the depicted universe, in which the earth is pushed behind him and to the side, which issues Loneliness, isolation, and egocentrism come to the fore.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

  • 2018 "The Search For Languorous Magic" MAHO KUBOTA GALLERY, Tokyo
  • 2015 "I am here with you" Jack Hanley Gallery, New York
  • 2013 "happily skipping backwards (2013-1978)" motherʼs tank station, Dublin
  • 2010 “Rest with us in peace” mother's tank station, Dublin.
  • 2010 "Project Room" Artists Residency Program, Irish Museum of Modern Art,
  • 2009 “Why can we keep going forward? Because we forget the problem of yesterday "
  • 2009 Galeria LEME, São Paulo, Brazil
  • 2008 "I want to give love to socially neglected parts of you, that is my mission"
  • 2008 Butler Gallery, Kilkenny
  • 2007 “Bunny's Darkness and Other Stories” mother's tank station, Dublin

Group exhibitions

  • 2017 “The Way Things Go” The Butler Gallery, Kilkenny, Ireland
  • 2017 “It just happens to be” Pallas Projects, Dublin
  • 2015 "Friends Of Devil" Jack Hanley Gallery, New York
  • 2014 "SED TANTUM DIC VERBO (JUST SAY THE WORD)." Blain | Southern, Berlin
  • 2012 "I love those paintings (art, natural and social science)" motherʼs tank station, Dublin
  • 2012 “One and Many” Location One, New York
  • 2011 "Astatic" Sandra and David Bakalar Gallery, MassArt, Boston
  • 2008 “Winter Salon” Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin
  • 2007 “Timelines” Mermaid Center, Wicklow, Ireland
  • 2007 "Visual Fictions" Fenton Gallery, Cork, Ireland (Curated by Cliodhna Shaffrey)
  • 2006 "The Square Root of Drawing" Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin
  • 2006 “Getting on Mother's Nerves” Mother's gas station, Dublin
  • 2005 "A Moment in Time" Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin

Performances

  • 2012 "Nerd Bag Project at Miami Basel" Miami
  • 2012 "Death, Void and Sometimes My Mother" Location One, New York
  • 2012 “Nerd Bag Project in New York” Location One, New York
  • 2010 “Nerd bag Project in Dublin” IMMA, Dublin

Prices

  • 2016 Visual Arts Bursary, Arts Council of Ireland
  • 2013 Visual Arts Bursary, Arts Council of Ireland
  • 2012 Project Studio Award, Temple Bar Gallery and Studios, Dublin
  • 2011 Travel Bursary, Arts Council of Ireland
  • 2011 Mont Blanc Young Artist World Patronage Award
  • 2010 Project Studio Award, Temple Bar Gallery and Studios, Dublin
  • 2010 Visual Arts Bursary, Arts Council of Ireland
  • 2009 Visual Arts Bursary, Arts Council of Ireland
  • 2009 Cultural Ireland's grant
  • 2007 Visual Arts Bursary, Arts Council of Ireland

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Atsushi Kaga - Exhibitions - Jack Hanley Gallery Press release from the Jack Henley Gallery on Atsushi's exhibitions. Accessed July 12, 2018.
  2. ↑ Atsushi Kaga (Japan) Website of the Irish Museum of Modern Art on Atsushi Kaga. Retrieved July 12, 2018.
  3. ^ Atsushi Kaga - Exhibitions - Jack Hanley Gallery Press release from the Jack Henley Gallery on Atsushi's exhibitions. Accessed July 12, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Kaga, Atsushi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese mixed media artist
DATE OF BIRTH 1978
PLACE OF BIRTH Tokyo