|
Japanese art, long cherished for its fluidity and understated elegance, has continued to inspire artists in the 21st Century. Modern and yet timeless, Agora Gallery’s Matrix of the Mind is a survey of talented contemporary Japanese artists. With their appreciation for the natural world and the spiritual mind, these works will captivate the soul with their subtle philosophies and passionate beauty.
Click here to submit your portfolio to the next exhibition
|
Midori Kakino
 
|
Because my father was an oil-painter and a designer, many of my childhood memories include famous paintings of artists such as da Vinci, Corregio, Ingres and Kandinsky, which took the place of fairy tales for me. These early experiences developed my artistic appreciation and were the basis of my desire to create art myself. Yet I also discovered relatively early in my life an interest in geometry and its shapes, and I began to incorporate this into my art, through use of digital media. It seems to me that this is an important part of how I address the mysteries of the world through my art.
|
|
click to enlarge
|
|
"The Gate"
|
|
"The Solitude of Eve"
|
|
|
|
Kyohei Kiyobe
|
I have never received a formal art or painting education. However, I started learning Japanese calligraphy at seven years old, obtaining an elementary school level teaching license in this traditional Japanese art form when I was only fourteen. This knowledge and skill is the basis all of my art now, just as my cultural background and awareness underlies my work. After high school I traveled for some time, touring around Japan and visiting Thailand, and Laos, Cambodia, and South Korea. These experiences opened my mind and gave me the sense that everything is interconnected, and taught me to find joy in that fact. It is this that I try to share through my art.
|
|
click to enlarge
|
|
"Nature"
|
|
"Overflow Emotion"
|
|
|
|
Sachie Koyama
|
I aim to create an impressive atmosphere with the exquisite balance of colors and shapes. Just as composers express themselves and their ideas with sounds without words, I use colors and shapes to show what I want to express. I have found that there are many visions that attract me in the world, such as the silhouette of branches, and shapes of clouds... I started to look for my own vision, which provides me a certain satisfaction and fulfilment. I use oil paint, watercolor, pastel, acrylic, and other various materials. I choose what my materials according to the texture the images in my mind require.
|
|
click to enlarge
|
|
"Wind and Air 9"
|
|
"Wind and Air 8"
|
|
|
|
Nobuyuki Matsubara
|
My design reflects the things I’ve seen, experienced, and felt. Seemingly, my work looks well-detailed, however when I design, I don’t have a plan, I just collect photos which I feel “cool”, then collage them little by little taking a great attention to color balance and shape in a digital way. Therefore, sometimes people can see stunning parts in my design as a new trick art.
|
|
click to enlarge
|
|
"Fresco Beetle"
|
|
"Doubt"
|
|
|
|
Miyooon
|
My approach and focus in creating art is based around the idea that everything in the world, including ourselves, is made of cells. They come in many forms, all the colors of the rainbow, with their own words and sounds. They are constantly in flux, moving, changing, exchanging places and in doing so they show us their many expressions and emotions, a reflection of ourselves. They struggle and shift within Time, as we do. My work as an artist to is to capture them in that split second and mount them on canvas or using other materials, to express their eternal dance of growth and decline.
|
|
click to enlarge
|
|
"Two"
|
|
"Alumni Meeting"
|
|
|
|
Koki Morimoto
|
I always try to feel nature work around us. I find it both inspiring and relaxing to feel the confident repetition at work there, that functions without thought of us. Drawing is for me the action by which one line brings the next line, until something grows, trying to take its shape on the canvas. It is similar to the way that nature works. I believe that our lives exist within nature and great emotion is built into my work through the integration of those two factors. I express these ideas through my pictures, using acrylic. They keep growing, in both monochrome and in various colors, until they escape from the medium to find root in a viewer's mind.
|
|
click to enlarge
|
|
"With Respect to Area 20-1"
|
|
"With Respect to Area 20-2"
|
|
|
|
Iwasaki Nagi
|
I could never escape my creative fate. However, for many years, I couldn't understand what it was that I needed to draw, or how to draw it. Whilst I was working in a senior citizen nursing facility, I lived by the sea and I saw the sea every day. Then one day, abruptly, I realized that secrets were hidden in daily things. All I needed was 3 brushes and 12 water colors, and I could draw the secrets out one by one, from all the usual sights I saw around me. The greatest thing about this is that I can share these insights with others. I want to share it with you now.
|
|
click to enlarge
|
|
"Kobe Safe Biscuits (KSB)"
|
|
"Ann"
|
|
|
|
Satomi Nishino
|
My interest is the connection between the human body and the mind, and the connections between the real and surreal world. The lack of balance between the mind and the body associates with the undefined existence or possibilities within ourselves in the real world. I came up with these theories because they are all based on my experiences and my sensitivity to atmosphere and I believe that we all go through the same thing. I hope that my drawings and poem will express artistically that sense of vague reality and surrealism that occurs in our daily life. However, I want my audience to interpret my drawings according to their own perspective, using their senses rather than their intellect.
|
|
click to enlarge
|
|
"My Monster"
|
|
"The Fear of Ignorance"
|
|
|
|
Dan OBANA
|
Art evolves partly through the use of tools which arise that are suited to the age. As such, I am sure that digital technique will play an important role in inventing a new art in modern times. The process of creating original artwork on the computer requires, in my case, multiple-layer manipulations. In my artwork, about fifty layers are combined, processed and manipulated; accordingly, I give my artworks the name of "Digital-HANGA", “HANGA” being traditional Japanese block print. Improving my level of technical skill and the constant evolution of sensitivity, deep thinking and feeling within me are constant goals. I want to absorb and understand the characteristics of both digital and non-digital techniques, so that I can create work that expresses a sense of our modern era and develop art by using the new possibilities opened up to us through the use of digital media.
|
|
click to enlarge
|
|
"Illusion"
|
|
"Ancient Age"
|
|
|
|
Umeko Okano
|
I work with oil, because it suits my subjects and does not restrict me. Usually I do not obtain the desired result at once, and I often continue to work on a painting longer, adding details little by little till I'm fully satisfied. Eventually my imagined scenery starts becoming a clear visual image in my picture, and my persistence is rewarded in the thick metière and deep colors of my paintings. I am attracted to people's lives. Life is like a journey, consisting of ephemeral precious moments. I feel motivated to describe some scenes which make me envision unknown pasts and futures of people, and this can produce images such as those which show people standing or walking along streets, alleys, stairs or something like a pier or jetty which leads people toward the horizon.
|
|
click to enlarge
|
|
"Road to the Horizon"
|
|
"Street 1"
|
|
|
|
Rie Osogoe
|
I have always been interested in colors, in the harmony of colors, in contrast, and in the rhythm and dynamics of colors. These are the things that for me organize space, dimensions and depth. Layers of colored papers spark my imagination accidentally as I pass them by, and I get interested in geometrical shapes, squares, rectangles and lines. Sometimes this inspires me to create a collage, with its micrograph of creature cells, maps and other fascinating elements that make up our lives. What I love most about colors and shapes is that they help me to express aspects of human life, and explore the nature of being human.
|
|
click to enlarge
|
|
"C-2-09"
|
|
"C-4-09"
|
|
|
|
Reiko Sakai
|
I began to draw when I was very young, usually abstract pictures. When I was older I became a graphic designer and free-lance illustrator, but I soon came to understand that that was not enough for me. I knew that I would not find fulfilment by doing anything other than actually painting, and set out on a journey of self-discovery to find what I was looking for. The result is that I have learned that I want to aim at something in my art, to speak to the viewer and convey to them my feelings. My experience in design and illustration has helped me with this, but the most important factor is my determination and my love of art.
|
|
click to enlarge
|
|
"Heaven and Earth"
|
|
"Dragon"
|
|
|
|
Tetsuo Takashima
|
I developed my own personal artistic style during my years as a freelance illustrator. For me the beginning of any piece of work, and the foundation of my art, is a simple line. I will begin by just taking the brush and letting it run across the page, in accordance with whatever spring of inspiration has moved me. Once the first line has been drawn, it gives birth to another, and another after that. I may borrow a shape from an object in reality, or I may employ abstract forms to express my meaning. I remain always open-minded in terms of style and technique, to be able to give a form to the idea in my mind as best as I can.
|
|
click to enlarge
|
|
"Thumbmark"
|
|
"Town"
|
|
|
|
Saori Louise Tatebe
|
A fundamental theme in my creative process is “Existence", and I approach my work as if I am giving birth from my finger tips. By placing that theme as a foundation, the concept changes easily depending on the piece. I create pieces because I would like people to have a chance to realize again the existence of small lives. The female torsos I create, sculpted in clay, display the same variation in shape and size as their human counterparts. Since I majored in oil painting at Tama Art University, and completed a Masters of Fine Art in ceramics in 2007 at the same school, I portray my world by combining two-dimensional design and three-dimensional objects, a fusion that I call as “2.5 D."
|
|
click to enlarge
|
|
"Apologies to the Earth"
|
|
"Layers of Times"
|
|
|
|
