NANZUKA UNDERGROUND is pleased to announce Sumiyo Ito's debut solo exhibition, child's play. The exhibition features an installation of ten new sculptural works.

Sumiyo Ito was born in 1982 in Nagano, Japan, and completed the graduate studies course in sculpture at Musashino Art University in 2009. An up and coming artist, she has attracted much attention since, receiving the grand prize for three-dimensional work at the 2010 Toyota Art Competition and at this year's 2011 Tokyo Wonder Wall.

Ito's works have deep ties to childhood memories and experience. Among the major themes in Ito's creative works are the innocent violence and free creativity we all possessed as children. Ito confesses, "When I was a child I wanted to see the insides of the dragonflies I caught, so I would often peel off their exoskeleton." That sort of experience is not out of the ordinary. Ito's works, magnifications of casually executed activities such as dissecting dolls and putting them back together to form new figures, are faithful to the fact that we as mankind have made progress due to that fundamental appetite known as curiosity.

The overarching theme for child's play is the childhood desire to conquer the "environment" and "scenario" through the unique childhood role-playing game in which children assign and enact household roles. Ito attempts to cast forms that express that innocent childhood appetite displayed while playing house to "make everything around me mine" and to "determine the casting of roles as I please."

Of the exhibition, Ito says: "The interest in and fear of death; the fear of and hope for life: the sculptures I make are bodies born out of wanting for that pleasure we get from controlling the cycle of Eros and Thanatos (at least the cycle that, in reality, we cannot manipulate)."

The opening reception will take place on November 19 starting at 18:00 and will be attended by the artist.

Nanzuka Underground is pleased to announce Dividing Bridge, a solo exhibition of new works by Keiichi Tanaami. The exhibition will feature life-sized sculptures and drawings in addition to the large-scale 2x3m painting Bridge to the Other World.

Keiichi Tanaami was born in Tokyo in 1936 and graduated from Musashino Art University. Tanaami is a one of a kind artist active since the 1960s as a graphic designer, illustrator, and artist who does not heed the boundaries of media and genre but instead traverses them. During his student days, Tanaami exhibited at Yomiuri Independent shows and collaborated with the likes of Ushio Shinohara and Tomio Miki, central members of the Neo Dada post-war Japanese art movement. After graduating in the mid-'60s, he was baptized by psychedelic culture and pop art, and began working in a wide range of media including film, silkscreen, painting and sculpture. He was especially inspired by a run-in with Andy Warhol in the late '60s, and has since been experimentally challenging major issues within contemporary art including art and design, art and product and the relation between daily life and art.

Tanaami has in recent years channeled much of his efforts onto the canvas. In particular, since 2010, he has been concentrating on making mainly large-scale paintings, mandalas of his 70 year-long personal history. These works contain, for example, many motifs drawn from Tanaami's childhood experience of war. Glowing grotesque creatures are personifications of bombs and the light from their explosions. Beams of light stretching outward recall the searchlights of Japanese troops keeping watch for American bomber planes. Skeletal monsters that appear in his works represent both those injured in the war as well as our selves, unaware of the true horrors of war. Goldfish-like characters also often appear in Tanami's work. This motif is deeply tied to a scene from Tanaami's memory etched permanently in his mind -- the image of light from the bombs reflecting off the scales of his grandfather's goldfish. Pine trees, seemingly pregnant with animal-like life forms, are based on hallucinations Tanaami witnessed when he nearly died from a pulminary edema at age 44. During his illness, for more than a week he suffered nightmares about pine trees tightening around him as they crept in spirals about his body. Traditional Japanese structures, Kabuki stages and drum bridges, also appear in Tanaami's works. In Japan it is believed that a red drum bridge connects this life with the next.

The Dividing Bridge exhibition is based particularly on Tanaami's strong interest in the unique meaning of the bridge. Tanaami explains, "The bizarre and dramatic combination of the severed head and drum bridge I had seen in a movie as a child and the dead body and drum bridge I had seen during a nighttime air raid invites me to another world divided from this world by a bridge. Since his childhood, Tanaami has noticed the relationship between the bridge and death, and has done much research about the mystery of the bridge as the cross point bridging this world and the next. "A long time ago, it was commonly believed that under the bridge "there exists, at any rate, a different world". The term "riverbed performer" is an example of how strong the ties were with the performing arts; that was where everything from street performances to kabuki took place. The derogatory term "riverbed beggars" was also commonplace, and deeply related to the expansion of the theater. The space beneath the bridge was believed to belong to another world, separate from reality, an alien world removed from every order, system and institution. Eerie, dubious freak show huts lined the banks, exposing the underbelly of society with sideshow attractions featuring the Long Neck Woman, snake ladies, dwarves and other "freaks" bustling in the dark. That strange space covered by the bridge as its roof was also a spot for hiding dead bodies and a secret gathering place for prostitutes. Brooding lovers, as an extreme breakup at the end of much languish, would throw themselves from bridge railings in miserable double suicides. No matter how you look at it, death is strongly related to and is a distinct feature of bridges in Japan."

The red bridge appears as a major motif in the main piece of the exhibition, Bridge to the Other World, a large-scale painting measuring 2x3m, as well as in his new sculptural works. These bridges always appear along with skull characters. Along with the red bridge in Bridge to the Other World, celebrated cartoon characters Atom and Popeye appear together with numerous deformed specters, monk ghosts, little girl ghosts and skeletons. In one sculpture, he recreates in model form a figure that appears in the painting, a skeletal girl carrying a golden, glowing baby in her arms as she crosses over a red bridge. Tanaami says that his personality morphs dark past experiences into positive expressions, but the world drawn here is Tanaami's ultimate paradise, transcending good and evil, affliction and fear.

Tanaami adds this comment about his recent works to be on display at the exhibition:

"For me, the profound and mystical world of the bridge poses a complex, haunting riddle. If the bridge is what separates this world from the afterworld, the border between the mundane and the divine, it must also be a place of meeting. Who is singing that song, faintly echoing from the other side of the bridge? I want to find out. I will always be intrigued by the infinite darkness that spreads out quietly beneath the bridge, the bottomless mystery hidden within that mystical, strange space."

Along with this exhibition, Tanaami's new silkscreens will be on display at Nanzuka Agenda in Shibuya from October 22 through December 11, featuring dozens of splendid/spectacular/stunning multicolor prints courtesy of 360° graphics.

NANZUKA UNDERGROUND is pleased to announce our upcoming solo exhibition of new works by Yuichi Yokoyama. Included in the exhibition are 18 canvas pieces by Yokoyama made during his open studio sessions at NANZUKA AGENDA Shibuya from November 2010 through February 2011, as well as all 12 original illustrations from his manga, "Color Engineering", that appeared in STUDIO VOICE magazine as a yearlong series in 2004.

Yuichi Yokoyama was born in 1967 in Miyazaki, Japan. He received his MFA in oil painting from Musashino Art University in 1990 and has been active as a manga artist since 1995. In addition to his manga, Yokoyama's colorful paintings and drawings have also drawn a wide fan base and his works have been praised within the art scene. Yokoyama's works have appeared in exhibitions including "Record of neo-manga by Yuichi Yokoyama: I am drawing time" (2010, Kawasaki City Museum), "City net Asia" (2009, Seoul Museum of Art) and "Roppongi Crossing" (2007, Mori Art Museum). His talent, which can be confined to neither the contemporary comic nor art scene, has garnered attention around the world, and some of his latest works are slated to appear in the upcoming exhibition "MANGA" (2012, Centre Pompidou).

The "Color Engineering" exhibition title references Yokoyama's deep fascination with the scenes he creates depicting construction work, such as the building of roads, dams and buildings. "I love watching the building process, watching someone use specialized occupational tools or devices crafted from what is available," he says. "It's more enjoyable to witness that process, and the overall lapse of time during the creation of a building, than to simply observe the completed structure." Appropriately, the key themes that recur in Yokoyama's creations are time, process and passage. One distinct aspect of his works is the way in which he expresses the steady, rhythmic passage of time. The mysterious and fantastic landscapes he creates are also key to understanding Yokoyama's world. As a child, he moved constantly from place to place, witnessing many different lands along the way. "I am mesmerized by landscapes and nature," says Yokoyama. "The man-made world is so easily destroyed, and is so uncertain; in contrast to that, the natural world is enduring, divine even. Humans, standing before such a gigantic force, are so tiny; all we can do is sit back and watch." Yokoyama's awe and respect for nature are represented in his imagery, in the landscapes and episodes, the constant tension, and in the characters he creates.

Of the upcoming exhibition, Yokoyama comments:
"In this body of work I am trying to capture the tension between the natural world and human desire. Whatever theme or motif I select, what I am drawing is not the physical thing in the picture but rather the particular sort of time that exists there."

The opening reception along with the release party for his new manga, "Color Engineering", will be held on 3rd September starting at 18:00, and will be attended by the artist.

Nanzuka Underground is pleased to announce HIERARCHY, a solo exhibit of new work by Akiyoshi Mishima. The installation features mixed media pieces, video art and wall paintings.

This exhibit is the third in a series following QUARTER (2006), Mishima's debut solo exhibit that explored the cultural roots and realities of the third postwar generation along with their responsibilities for the future and ultimate potential, and FAMILY (2009), an exhibition centered on the fundamental ties that exist between humans and all other living creatures, highlighting the potential for coexistence.

Mishima's concept of "hierarchy" is that of an internal hierarchy born from experience, in which personal decisions based on accumulated layers of experience and choice shape the solitary individual, and the resulting progress of the collective whole shapes the world. With this concept in mind, Mishima has created an experimental installation that flows like a correlation chart depicting the institution of human society, built from the inherited evolutionary history of human beings, the individual chronologies that grow like rings in a tree, and the collective whole of humanity.

Mishima refers to a "choice, a conscious control that exists between inevitability and chance" in regards to his new works. His mixed media piece made with aluminum board, for example, was created by layering color upon color, creating a strata of colors whose final form would remain unknown, and unpredictable, until its completion. Each of Mishima's works, made in this fashion, evokes within us a variety of expression, fueled by the harmony of his characteristic wit and the mysteriously beautiful colors. His video art and wall drawings are similarly composed of layers of colorful strata, and like a mandala that tells the history and roots of mankind and the world, arouse contemplation within the viewer.

"We can't change the past," says Mishima. "It is only by being conscious, each individual, in the present moment, that we are able to see the future."

The opening reception for this exhibition will take place on July 2nd starting at 6:00 pm, with an appearance by the artist.

NANZUKA UNDERGROUND proudly presents a two person exhibit by Tomoki Kurokawa and Tatjana Doll.

Kurokawa was born in 1975 in Mie Prefecture. He is a unique self-taught artist with no formal artistic training. He ironically refers to himself as an "outsider", yet this rare artist uses his inexperience as his weapon, always attempting bigger and bolder challenges. His creative fuel comes from a powerful internal rebelliousness. One of Kurokawa's most common themes, for example, is to explore how he can betray the viewer's sense of common knowledge. Another recurring theme is his search for the antithesis of existential value. Kurokawa's creative drive takes garbage and turns it into imagery; it erupts with the raw strength of graffiti scrawled by a child, and at the same time eloquently communicates the problem of living as an artist within contemporary society, bound by all of its rules.

Tatjana Doll, born in 1970 in Burgsteinfurt in former West Germany, graduated from Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Her one of a kind talent has been recognized and praised worldwide as she constantly pushes the boundaries of the ever-evolving possibilities of painting. Dynamic energy backed up by evident skill; an incomparable and overwhelming sense of scale; a sense of speed, of pulsing vibrancy; these are all commonly said of Tatjana's paintings. She uses as her subjects the entire spectrum of things that symbolize the state of our contemporary era, from children's toys to automobiles, airplanes and traffic signs; from classical artistic masterpieces to scenes taken from films and TV games. Her works remind us of the first impulses of intellectual curiosity gained in the process of our human evolution.

These two artists, both born in the '70s, continue to grope towards new possibilities of art within the medium of painting. Their works, which can reach up to 10 meters in size, are like crystals cut from continuous hard work and faith in the power of painting. They create as though constantly asking themselves how much they can move a person's spirit with a single painting.

NANZUKA UNDERGROUND is pleased to present German artist Frank Nitsche's first solo exhibition in Japan. Nitsche was born in Görlitz on the outskirts of Dresden in the former East Germany. He attended the Dresden Art Academy, the same school from which Gerhard Richter graduated. Along with his peers at the Academy, including Thomas Scheibitz and Eberhard Havekost, Nitsche has been dubbed part of the Dresden school generation and has received international acclaim as one of the leading artists of contemporary German abstract painting.

Nitsche has said that he himself is unable to project when or how each of his works will reach completion. In some cases, Nitsche spends years adding layer upon layer of oil paint searching for the perfect composition that possesses both subtlety and strength, and colors that strike a beautiful harmony. Although the process is fluid and incidental, the artist's firm quality control guides the piece as it flows toward its point of destination, a sublime place that, like the world of natural sciences, maintains a miraculous balance as intellect and emotion collide. The hidden layers beneath the accumulated applications of paint evoke historical truths that remain unrecognized by mankind. Or perhaps they represent the veil of contemporary progression, masking those truths.

Nitsche's paintings are like a mirror reflecting simultaneously the past, present and future. They are reminiscent of graffiti scrawled across the Berlin Wall that once tore apart East and West Germany, full of raw anger and despair. At another glance, they seem to imagine some yet undiscovered microbe, or perhaps the symbols and charts used in molecular, quantum and other cutting edge sciences. Then again, perhaps they are the traces left behind by extraterrestrial intelligent life forms.

Nitsche has titled this exhibit of new works "I AM SINGLE", yet as has been the case with his past exhibitions, the interpretation of the title is left open to the viewer. It seems almost as if the title is a decoy, to distract from the real context hidden within the works. Meanwhile, Nitsche has publicly revealed within his portfolio the sources of his morphological images in the form of a massive, thoroughly archived collection of photographs. There is a journalistic nature to the collection, revealing finally that the artist is in fact attempting to look beneath the surface of this world.

This exhibition marks Nitsche's second visit to Japan. An opening reception with the artist will take place on February 19th at 18:00. We welcome you to attend.

Frank Nitsche
1964 Born in Görlitz, Germany.
1993 Graduated Hochschule für Bildende Künste (Academy of Fine Arts), Dresden.
1995 Completed graduate studies at Dresden Art Academy.
Recent major solo exhibitions:
2010 "COCKTAILHYBRIDCONCEPT" Haus am Waldsee, Berlin
2007 "Frank Nitsche International" Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain, Strasbourg
Recent major group exhibitions:
2006 "Opening Up Art: The View from Here. Rehanging of the permanent collection" Tate Modern, London
2005 "Do it yourself" Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin
Currently lives in Berlin.

NANZUKA UNDERGROUND is pleased to present a group exhibition by Belgian young painter Rinus van de velde and two Japanese artists , Tomoo Gokita and Hiroki Tsukuda.

Rinus vad de velde is somewhat 27 years old who has already attracted high attention by the art scene in Europe as 40 exhibitions or more are digested. The work arises exactly from making good use of charcoal in the free hand in clay figure based on the technology that builds by the career of the sculpture department coming from. Rinus's wrok is based on a classical technique that collecting old magazines by oneself and lot of photographs of newspaper clipping. The work freely crosses the past and present future that shows universality of our managing in everyday life.

Tomoo Gokita builds the career as an illustrator in the 90's, and has boasted of charismatic popularity by magazine and the artwork such as CD jackets. Though the talent came up to be able to be admitted suddenly even by the art scene with the painting announced in recent years. The work of Tomoo field where the influence of music and the subculture that restructure the boundary of the high and low art. It has a huge influence on a lot of young artists.

Hiroki Tsukuda who is skilful in a plane, structural abstraction expression. It paints landscapes based on the theme like the light and shadow, construction, nature, and natural recognition and mistake. The work of Hiroki is using black ink, pencil and charcoal. The world of Hiroki's works which the nature compared with straight line artificial material and colors of shadow civilized society now at the time of alive of us is sharply reflected though it has futuristic atmosphere somewhere.

The exhibition is group exhibition by these three artists who are skilful in the arrangement of color of gray scale. There is a word " 5 colors in black sumi ink" at the field of traditional Japanese painting Sumi-e. The thing to develop a new expression by a simple color and the technique is not an easy thing at all. Three artists who see here will be able to say the art that it is an unusual talent who is presenting a fresh, lucid sound.

NANZUKA UNDERGROUND is pleased to present the exhibition titled “Wasted ashore” by Akira Nishitake at the main space of the the gallery. At the sub space of the gallery goes with Hiroko Yamaji titled “in the side space”.

Akira Nishitake, born in 1980 in Ehime prefecture of Japan, participated in the CCA Kitakyusyu program after graduating from SEINAN UNIVERSITY OF ART DESIGN department of sculpture. His works were displayed at the Kobe Art Annual in 2002, Gunma Young Biennial in 2005 at NO MAN’S LAND in 2010. His solo exhibition was organized by SENKO STUDIO in Denmark in 2009. Nishitake’s technique of work is combination of the wall drawing with the pure drawing. The work is converted in the sign the scenery in daily life and reproduced on the screen. Almost like a drawing music score by alien, microbes, cells painted with white and black, pastel colors are associated with the cosmic world.

He announces the new wall drawings and drawings. He describes his new works; ‘Washed ashore is a sequel to Mola Mola Moment work, inspired by billions of sunfish eggs which was presented in Denmark last year. The wreckage changes into different things beyond recognition. The wreckage that lost the skin and surface fascinates. I’d like to show the jumble drawing consisted of the wreckage.’

Hiroko Yamaji, born in Mie prefecture of Japan in 1983, is an artist who graduated Musashino Art University department of Oil painting.　She participated in the exhibition “Art Award Tokyo” “Gunma Young Biennial” in 2008 and “Tokorozawa Biennial” in 2009. She collects informations and ideas from daily life transforming and re-constructing the works rhythmically. Creating abstract paintings combined with macro and micro perspectives. The new painting sized 145 x 130cm present.

Nanzuka Underground is pleased to present the second solo exhibition by Tomoki Kurokawa.

Tomoki Kurokawa, born in 1975 in Mie prefecture of Japan, is an artist had no formal art education. He is a self-trained artist without any academic 'training', preferring to maintain the purest well from which to draw inspiration. Thus he ironically refers to himself as an outsider artist.

The crux of Kurokawa's exhibition centers on the massive painting which is some eight meters wide and nearly three meters high and is constructed from ten canvases. The triumphant painting of Kurokawa seen in the exhibition required over a year to complete during which time the artist steadfastly held to his personal axiom that 'art is creating new from nothing'.

Kurokawa has characterized his artwork as 'Trash Painting' facetiously commenting on the information consumed in society today. The 'Trash Painting' distinction originated as he considered the issue of contemporary society splayed across multitudes of magazines, books and miscellaneous advertising and Internet media images. Kurokawa contends that consumerism of image, strength of image, hierarchy of image have become intertwined within the theme of contemporary art and should be discussed by artists.

Reflecting contemporary society in his latest work, the artist realized that contemporary society has created so many new values and rules by itself, it has conversely neglected/ignored multitudes of extant issues and worthlessness. In the exhibitions, Tomoki Kurokawa evaluates the role of the artist and explores the possibility of art; Propagating contemporary issues, tangibly reminding us that such problems are omnipresent and through art we are able to reflect such impulsivity and spontaneity.

He stated as follows;
" The issues of contemporary society might remain in my mind. I have attempted to keep in mind the impulse to paint artworks at the first time of my life."

NANZUKA UNDERGROUND is pleased to present a new works of show by Taku Anekawa in a solo exhibition since two years and half.

Taku Anekawa, born in 1970 in Hyogo prefecture of Japan, has master degree from Kobe Design University. He has worked as media creator for animations and digital contents. Anekawa is renowned for his work in Japanese TV children program Ponkickies creating the “Mysterious Vegetable Aliens appear” series. He has worked on the artwork that uses embroidery to grope for the self-portrait as the artist after 2002.

He creates chaotic perspectives using images of magazines and websites. Mysterious characters, hands, rainbows, dramatic vivid planets, mountains, glass marbles, chairs, ammonites, Thunder, mushrooms, all of these are represented randomly, showing chaotic images that might remind big cities such ad Tokyo made by high technologies and too much information. The talent he has is to show freak forms as comical. Parodying horror is one of his features, he changes horror into comical forms on one picture, and by doing he establishes the initiative consisted of mischief and fetishism. His attitude might be conservative on contemporary art. He has explored how to create foolish art works. He always attitude against conceptual and contemporary art is shown through the works.

He created a poem for this exhibition.

I don’t wanna know anything, I don’t even know anything.
I can’t do anything, I have no idea for everything.
Feelings flow at once, and it forgot yesterday.
There is no answer in anywhere, I don’t even wanna know it if there is.
I love the internet because it is foolish, I love the TV because it is stupid.
I’m in love with unsure possibility.
I make it while just doing with while my body.

NANZUKA UNDERGROUND is pleased to present ''-scape'', a group exhibition featuring the work of Kozo KISHIMOTO, Hiroki TSUKUDA and Hiroko YAMAJI.
This exhibition gathers 3 young Japanese artists who each has his or her own personal approach to interpret expressions of abstraction and landscape representation.

Kozo KISHIMOTO was born in 1980 in Osaka and graduated from Seian University of Arts and Design with a Major in Arts and Design. In 2009, his works were exhibited at Wonder Seeds at Tokyo Wonder Site. Kishimoto's works depict abstract landscapes, using the subtle blending properties of oil paints in such a way that they look like watercolor. These landscapes remind spectators of some characteristics of ''Sansui'' ink paintings (Japanese ink painting that usually depicts landscapes of mountains and water). Some motifs, such as sheer cliffs, soaring mountains, smoking fog, and mountain streams, repeatedly appear in his paintings. Kishimoto's position is to try to capture the scenery in the landscape and the lyrical feelings linked to it. In this way, he revitalizes the technique of modern abstract painting by cutting off in fragments elements like memory, thought, time and history and then combining them.

Hiroki Tsukuda was born in 1978 in Kagawa Prefecture and graduated from the Musashino Art University, Department of Art and Design, with a Major in Imaging Arts and Sciences. He has already had two solo exhibitions at the gallery. Tsukuda often depicts landscapes and architectures with recourse to geometrical motifs that he puts in his screens as symbols. It is based on the idea of simple addition and subtraction, rooted more in his interest in designed compositions and tricks due to unconscious mistakes of human sight (optical illusions), than in the concept of Cubist reconstruction. As a result, his works are based on bringing out objects’ individuality, rather than expressing subjectivity. These painted screens aim to express dignity and solemnity. In this exhibition, we show recent artworks from the series of architecture paintings that will be displayed during the exhibition devoted to the architect Seiichi SHIRAI held at the Museum of Modern Art, Gunma, from September 11.

Hiroko YAMAJI was born in 1983 in Mie Prefecture and completed a Major in oil painting at the Department Arts and Design at Musashino Art University.

Yamaji is a highly-regarded young artist who has exhibited at ''Art Award Tokyo'', ''Gunma Biennale for Young Artists'' in 2008, and ''Tokorozawa Biennial of Contemporary Art Siding Railroad'' in 2009. It is clear that Yamaji's works displays her high style, which is expressed by a keen sense of color, a mastery of using black gradation, and bold and light brushwork. Based on her original aesthetic sense, she frequently introduces in her artworks figures to which we usually don't pay much attention, such as architectural structure and plastic clips of bag closures. Yamaji constructs rhythmic paintings by introducing such favorite motifs in landscapes. Her works eloquently display the pleasant relationship between daily life and beauty.

It emerges that the three artists we see here have the same fervor of their youth to take up great challenges and question art principles like classical landscape painting and abstract art, which dominated 20th century art. The unprecedented role that art must play has become more and more important everyday. Thus, imagination is considered the catalyst to drag the future to a globalized world. At the same time, new visions, which follow one another, emerge from cultural areas all over the world, from regions that were not regarded as important up to now. In this exhibition, we would like to pose a question. What kind of new values can arise from the cultural area of Japan? It would be greatly appreciated if this exhibition becomes the lever to propel these young talented artists toward the future.

NANZUKA AGENDA and NANZUKA UNDERGROUND are pleased to successively present the solo exhibition of MUSTONE’s new works. MUSTONE was born in Tokushima in 1976 and graduated from Tama Art University. Since then, he has oriented his creations along two directions, one by publishing his original comic books such as “Can Grow In The Dark” and “Nekoman”, and another by expressing himself through activities with the street art scene. At the same time, he has taken part in various projects, such as unique live paintings mixing digital and analog effects (Expo 2005, Aichi, Japan).

One year after his last solo exhibition, we are displaying a series of surface plane artworks using a spray on canvas technique. After having primarily used oil chalk as his main medium for the last 5 years, and silicone resin for his last exhibition a year ago, he now experiments with a different technique. It is not surprising to observe such changes on behalf of MUSTONE since he is endowed with a vigorous challenging spirit, which constantly aims to evolve. This is the expression of his strong desire to downright emancipate himself from the pattern of the traditional artist whose technique is based on repetition and attainment.

In addition, there is a particular aspect of his recent work to point out, that of the resurfacing tendency to utilize some of his original street artist forms. This he is doing with the intention of conquering new formal expressions and going beyond the academism here in the street spray painting scene. In his new artistic creations, he has a new way of using dotting derived from the technique of silicone resin exhibited last year, and in the same time he makes free use of the dripping effect which is one of the spray medium characteristics. Paying attention to his artwork thusly, we figure out his evolutionary process and experience the results.

The series of works we are currently presenting have been depicted as “Portraits of Yokai (Japanese specter)”, figuring ‘things’ from a parallel world MUSTONE envisioned. These portraits are based on MUSTONE’s own special encounters and experiences.

This exhibition will be held successively in two places. The first part of this exhibition, “YOKAI-TEN I”, will take place at NANZUKA AGENDA (Shibuya), as a special opening exhibition. NANZUKA AGENDA has been recently established with the purpose of introducing highly alternative projects and to explore yet unknown possibilities of art. Later, we will present the same works of art as a whole during the second part of the exhibition, “YOKAI-TEN Ⅱ”, at NANZUKA UNDERGROUND (Shirokane). Furthermore, a reception party with MUSTONE will be held on Friday, June 11, at NANZUKA AGENDA (Shibuya), and on Saturday, July 3, at NANZUKA UNDERGROUND (Shirokane). Our sincerest anticipation in seeing you all at both exhibitions.

Nanzuka Underground is pleased to present the solo exhibition of Hajime Sorayama (1947-). Sorayama graduated from Chubi Central Art School in Tokyo in 1969 and first spent some time working with an advertising company. Since 1972 when he became a freelance, he has been a legendary artist armed with his astounding reali metallicity stic techniques. His works of female images, pursuing of robot and eroticism are well known both inside and outside of Japan. This reputation was initially established in 1978 with the work series entitled “Sexy Robot”, which shocked people throughout the world for his artful depictions of sensual metallic qualities and reflected light. In 1999, he won both the Good Design Grand Prize from the Ministry of Trade and Industry, and the Media Arts Festival Grand Prize from the Agency from Cultural Affairs for his work with Sony on the concept design for their entertainment robot AIBO. In 2001, Sorayama received another prize for this invention, this time from the Asahi newspaper, and in this same year the 1st generation AIBO was added to the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Institute and the Museum of Modern Art. As if that weren’t enough, the internationally famous rock band Aerosmith collaborated with Sorayama on the artwork for the cover of their 2001 album Just Push Play.

He has won respect from artists worldwide as the Godfather of airbrush technique. Sorayama says, “In pursuit of hyper-realism, I use the airbrush in a way that naturally depicts minute details of human skin, lips, eyeballs, hair, even individual body hair, or the feel of leather or silk clothes, the metallicity of the robot, the reflection of light...” Regarding the possibilities of realistic painting, he has said, “I can make characters with acrobatic postures, which is absolutely impossible with photographs, or costumes that don’t exist in reality. In addition, I can modify the body freely even which is not anatomically correct, or composite to a beautiful woman according to my taste.” Surely we can say that through his insatiable pursuit of aesthetic sense, he has generated something new.

Sorayama comments that he hates the word of “art”, and he puts himself in the same line with the pioneers of American pin-up illustrators such as George Brown Petty, Gil Elvgren, and Alberto Vargas. “There is no stories in my pictures. The models exist on their own, in a self-determined state of completion. Therefore, I think my work still belongs to the paradigm of pin-up art.” - Hajime Sorayama It may be different depending on each person how to associate Sorayama’s image as an artist. If his artisan spirit that seeks to perfect his craft and career is considered, he’s categorized as an illustrator. On the other hand, if he is considered as a pioneer of airbrush technique, a charisma of his robot paintings and of nude portraits, we have a more expansive view of his image. The global art scene is still now continuing to explore the possibilities. 21st century modern art has taken up the challenge of uncovering the relation between art and design, commodities and art, and daily life and beauty. A clear answer has yet to be found, but the existence of Sorayama could possibly provide one of the answers.

This exhibition will display 10 excellent pieces carefully selected from his extensive 40-year career. A reception party with Sorayama will be held on Saturday, May 22nd. Our sincerest anticipation in seeing you all at the exhibition.

Nanzuka Underground is pleased to present “Reventon," the first solo exhibition in Japan of the German artist, Tatjana Doll.

Tatjana Doll was born in 1970 in Burgsteinfurt in Ex-West Germany and graduated from Düsseldorf Art Academy. She is an internationally recognized artist who owns a rare talent that allows her to continuously pursue the possibilities of painting which is inconstantly evolving.

Dynamic and bold, grandiose and overwhelming scale, speediness and throbbing vitality. We usually use this kind of terminology to talk about a champion athlete, but these descriptors perfectly match Tatjana's approach to painting.

She gives priority to large-scale artworks without limits of size, such as the paintings exhibited in Art Unlimited at Art Basel last year. Or one work which represents huge containers, measures 9.8 meter height and 9.8 meter width. Another depicts the high-speed train, Shinkansen, and is 30 meter long. And still another depicts a breakdown truck, and its dimensions are 12 × 4 meter.

Doll enjoys painting all sort of subjects, including cars, planes, road signs, a scene from a movie or an old masterpiece. This interest in various subjects resembles our first impulse, as human beings, to paint in order to satisfy our intellectual curiosity, as we grow and develop.

In this exhibition, Doll shows a new series of car paintings which have made her famous. The series depicts the elite car model, Lamborghini Reventon, produced in a limited edition of 20, which selling price is one million euro. Each painting is highly characteristic of Doll’s work, expressing speed, vitality and amazing energy.

When asked about her large-scale hammer paintings of the past, Doll said: ''A very big hammer was always parked in the street I used to walk through everyday. The first time, I saw it, I thought it was too big. But, after having painted it, I suddenly realized I developed a special relationship with this hammer. My wish is to always show the essence of the object I depict. ''

Doll creates huge artworks that reflect a necessary aspect of the real.

This exhibit marks Doll’s first visit to Japan. An opening reception party will be held on April 3rd. We look forward to seeing you at the exhibition.