Shohei Takasaki Juxtaposes Art and Fashion in New Tokyo Exhibition
On view at Gallery COMMON until December 25.
For Shohei Takasaki, art and fashion are cut from the same cloth. Born in Saitama, Japan, before relocating to Portland, Oregon, then eventually Sydney, Australia, Takasaki’s artwork investigates the illusionary power behind art and fashion. While clothes hides the body, paint conceals the canvas, according to Takasaki.
The Japanese artist returns to his country of birth in a new solo exhibition at Tokyo’s Gallery COMMON. 3 HEARTS 9 BRAINS BLUE BLOOD presents a series of Takasaki’s signature “clothing collage” paintings. Inspired by the 1920s Automatism art movement, which encouraged an almost automatic mode of art-making free from the constraints of intention, Takasaki creates dialogues between image and material, along with probing into the implied meaning we place into art and fashion as vehicles of expression.
Takasaki explained further:
“I often compare the nature of clothing with the art-making method we call collage. Collage can often save a lot of time, bring in unexpected fragments from a completely different dimension, and distance itself from the image of the completed work that was originally visualized only in the artist’s mind. In the case of clothing and its function of “concealing the body”, the body is made up of multiple sections between the top of the head to the toes, and so can be likened to a single canvas on which an overall fashion look made up of many clothing elements are collaged together (with no care for context).”
3 HEARTS 9 BRAINS BLUE BLOOD will be on view in Tokyo until December 25.
Elsewhere, Los Angeles will play host to the largest Beastie Boys exhibit ever.
Gallery COMMON
5 Chome-39-6 Jingumae
Shibuya City, Tokyo 150-0001
Japan
