Group exhibition “Freestyle Asians”

2023.01.14(Sat) – 2023.01.19(Thu)

YUGEN Gallery will hold a group exhibition "Freestyle Asians" featuring six artists from four Asian countries from Saturday, January 14th to Thursday, January 19th, 2023.

Exhibition Information

venue

YUGEN Gallery
Token International Building 3F, 2-12-19 Shibuya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo

Dates

Saturday, January 14, 2023 - Thursday, January 19, 2023

Opening hours

Mon-Fri 14:00-19:00
Saturday, Sunday and public holidays 13:00-19:00
*Ends at 17:00 on the final day only
*No closing days

Admission fee

free

Notes

*Please note that the dates and opening hours may change without notice depending on the situation.

Exhibited works images

HOKUTO / TOKYO
HOKUTO / TOKYO
SMITH / BANGKOK
SMITH / BANGKOK
JAYSON / TAIPEI
JAYSON / TAIPEI
WOK22 / FUKUOKA
WOK22 / FUKUOKA
WASIN / BANGKOK
WASIN / BANGKOK
JINLE / SHANGHAI
JINLE / SHANGHAI

*Please note that some of the exhibited works may be subject to change.

Information on special offers for visitors

We will give away a free original art book to those who fill out the questionnaire upon visiting the exhibition. This original art book, exclusive to this exhibition, compiles the exhibited works and the exhibition statement in one volume.

Art book for group exhibition "Freestyle Asians"
Artists: CYH Jayson, Daichouou, Wasin Paisakhamas, Yasumichi Ichibayashi, JinLe Zhu, WOK22, Montemith
B4 variant / Price: 1,650 yen (tax included)

*Please note that the design of the art book may be subject to change.

Statement

Tracing its roots and crossing borders

YUGEN Gallery will be featuring Asian artists for its 2023 opening. Six artists use street art techniques to establish the uniqueness of their own culture and explore global values from there. They are CYH Jason Daicho Wang (Taiwan), Wasin Paisak Hamas (Thailand), Montemis (Thailand), Yasumichi Ichibayashi (Japan), Jin Lu (China), and WOK22 (Japan).

Street culture, which has been on the rise since the 1990s, has presented an alternative view of the world using everyday things around us as a subject. CYH Jason Large Colon King, considered to be the most important figure in Taiwan's graffiti art scene, says, "Ideas come from random daily news, everything around me," and creates works that trace the roots of Taiwanese people through "dirty street art" that adds noise to everyday events, with themes of national character, sex, and religion. Having been diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome himself, he sees the lesion as a creation, calling himself "King of Large Colon," and explores the identity of a region that is not easy to understand with his own keen individual consciousness.

In the magnetic force of the street, where diverse values come and go, Wasin Paisak Hamas tries to approach the world before human civilization. He expresses the connection between old and new cultures by drawing strange characters in semi-fluorescent colors on monochrome photographs of Buddha statues and other objects. While producing such works, he launched the art project AT Exchange in his hometown of Ban Phong in the western part of Thailand, inviting various artists from around the world to work in photography, painting, graffiti, and more, and presiding over an art festival. For about two months, he exhibited works and performed live performances in various places in areas where old customs remain, bringing to light the living customs and history rooted in the land and questioning their relationship to the present.

New values born from noise

Ichibayashi Hokumi, who studied traditional Japanese painting, is attempting to establish a Japanese painting expression by a generation born and raised in an era surrounded by man-made things. Moving away from themes that have been passed down in Japanese painting, such as flowers, birds, wind, and moon, he creates "ambiguous paintings" using information he has picked up on the Internet and his own fragmented memories. He visualizes "the noise that arises when the artist entrusts his imagination to his roots about what the era was like and what the process of creating a work is, and the discrepancy that occurs." There is also a skeptical eye towards the grand narratives created by authorities, such as inherited history and culture.

Both artists use noise to unravel the genealogy from their roots to the present and attempt to depict the landscape ahead.

Jinlu expresses the fluctuations of memory and the world through noise. "The world of colors that I sense is constantly changing and moving. I capture it with my first instinct and record it in the shortest time with the crudest techniques," he says. His works, which "leave traces of imperfection" through rough sketches and noisy use of color, depict the imperfections of memory, revealing that the values and world we rely on are fictional. This questioning of current values is something that Ichibayashi shares with us.

Incompatible customs of culture, race, and era intersect, fluctuating and weaving together memories and experiences. The identities that emerge from this intermingling suggest a new landscape.

WOK22's graffiti works, which use natural motifs such as waves and clouds to create a worldview reminiscent of ukiyo-e that is cute yet horrifying, express the fear of the other world and the opposing curiosity. Recently, they have sublimated the subject matter into simple patterns, and are creating works with the theme of all sorts of things moving freely through space and interacting with each other.

Montemis, who develops graffiti art based on traditional Thai techniques such as lacquer and openwork painting, has a theme of "life and Buddhism." He says he is "interested in hell," and paints images reminiscent of hellscapes with a dynamic touch. He seeks to reveal a new realm of values from the Buddhist view of the universe, which sees the world as a dualistic structure of a world of delusion and earthly desires and a so-called paradise that is liberated from them.

Asia, a place that gives a sense of a new beginning

In today's world, where economic and cultural relationships are intricately intertwined, we ponder our own "blood" and "land." Rather than the grand narratives created by nations, we each pick up the small stories that fall out of them with our own personal sensibilities and bring them together. This exhibition takes the perspective that the differences in sensibilities we encounter reveal the depth of our relationships and the stirrings of our souls.

Six Asian artists, whose medium is the streets where incomprehensible people come and go and where raw values are lying around, come together in Shibuya, Tokyo, each with their own roots. This collection strongly suggests that the Asian streets are the "starting point" for the birth of new global values.

About sales of artworks

At the same time as the exhibition, the works will be available to view and purchase on the YUGEN Gallery official online store.

CYH Jayson Colon King
CYH Jayson Colon King
CYH Jason Da-Chang Wang / Born in Taipei, Taiwan. Moved to the US at the age of 15 and studied art at the University of North Texas. Returned to Taiwan and started creating works that combine street art and fine art. His work is characterized by psychedelic colors and a sexual worldview that is reminiscent of the influence of Keiichi Tanaami. He says that his "style is to make everything look dirty," and is also involved in marine environmental conservation activities with scientists and artists from around the world.
Wasin Paisakhamas
Wasin Paisakhamas
Wasin Paisakhamus / Born in Ratchaburi, Thailand. Painter, photographer, and curator. Studied fine art at Bangkok University. His style is characterized by drawing colorful characters on black-and-white photographs he has taken himself. He also creates works that combine painting and digital media. By depicting a worldview before the age of highly developed humans, he satirizes a world where problems such as wars continue to increase.
Ichibayashi Hokumichi
Ichibayashi Hokumichi
Hokuto Ichibayashi
Ichibayashi Hokuto / Born in Ishikawa, Japan in 1992. Graduated from Kyoto Seika University, Faculty of Art, Department of Art and Design, majoring in Japanese painting. Instead of using traditional Japanese painting paints that use minerals, animals, and plants found in nature as coloring materials, he chooses to use acrylic paints and other materials to express the realistic aesthetic sensibility of a generation born and raised in a society surrounded by manmade things. Making full use of traditional Japanese painting techniques, he creates works that incorporate the visual expressions of games and feature the customs of the 2000s and beyond as motifs.
Jin Le Zhu
Jin Le Zhu
Jin Lu was born in Zhejiang Province, China in 1984. He studied public art at the China Academy of Art. While working as an artist, he also works as an art director and a part-time lecturer at the Shanghai Design Academy. He creates paintings and drawings using iPads and iPhones, as well as visual works with a steampunk worldview. He is involved in spatial design, product development across a wide range of products from furniture to cosmetics, and has collaborated with many brands both in Japan and overseas.
WOK22
WOK22
Wok22 / Born in Aichi, Japan. Currently based in Fukuoka. Graphic artist and painter. He began his career as an artist in 2008 and has collaborated with a wide range of brands, including STUSSY, Adidas, and Hakata dolls, and is also active in Asia, including Taiwan, Korea, Thailand, and the Philippines. His work is characterized by bright yet profound colors, and he excels at collage-like drawings that combine various elements rather than painting a single picture.
Montemith
Montemith
Montemis / Born in Thailand. Artist and illustrator. Graduated from the Faculty of Decorative Arts at Silpakorn University. Using comic drawing techniques, he creates wall art that expresses the worldview of Thai folk tales and legends that have been passed down since ancient times. He has collaborated with skate brands such as PREDUCE, CONVERSE, and ASICS. He has a deep knowledge of traditional Thai crafts and is trying to connect his country's culture to the next generation through street art.