Between the abstract and the concrete

It feels like a letter from a friend in a foreign country. It depicts a surreal world. Tsukue Akimoto began his career after winning the Grand Prize in the 2nd Hobonichi Manga Awards organized by the Hobonichi Itoi Shimbun in 2012, and has since worked on illustrations for books and TV commercials.

He creates not only two-dimensional but also three-dimensional works by combining collages based on foreign printed matter he finds in second-hand bookstores and flea markets with paintings using acrylic paints. He has gained popularity both in Japan and overseas, having been invited to solo exhibitions, group exhibitions, and art fairs in Asia.

Akimoto creates figurative works like one-panel comics and abstract paintings using collages. He says that he is interested in painting things that are floating between figurative and abstract, rather than fixing his style. "Abstract, Figurative and the President" is a collection of paintings and collages that are not bound by theme but focus on color, shape, and the texture of art materials such as acrylic paint. Approximately 20 new and old works will be on display.

"When I work on my paintings with the attitude that meaning and concept are secondary, I feel that the paintings I seek are somewhere between abstract and concrete. The title is a phrase I came up with a long time ago, and I liked the sound of it. I don't know what "president" means, but I think it's probably a position of authority that is neither abstract nor concrete. I would like to pursue for a while what it means to be a president."

A pleasant "disgust of feeling"

Akimoto has always loved writing, so he majored in literature at university. After graduating, he studied at film school and was involved in the production of independent films and commercial theater productions. This is probably why Akimoto's handwriting and the few colors on his screen give the impression of a story.

Akimoto says that even when it comes to color usage, pleasing combinations alone are not enough to catch people's attention. Using noise as a theme, "pleasant discomfort," he depicts a world where foreign objects coexist in the familiar everyday.

"I'm interested in the works of other artists that I find too confusing and that are not to my taste. It's not an unpleasant feeling that I can't understand, but a fascinating mystery. As a creator, I see pictures that I would never paint and expressions that I would never create as distant ideals."

Collage is a creation that is "beyond my imagination" that is born from sampling and editing materials that are "outside my field of interest," such as drawings of tools. I have created works based on collage as a method of pursuing fascinating mysteries, using a technique of painting with acrylic paint.

While Akimoto was amused by the idea of encountering new forms of expression that he had never even imagined, he also felt conflicted about not being able to face painting due to the lack of specialized art education. From this point on, he had a strong desire to paint pictures that "directly conveyed his feelings through his art, placing the greatest importance on the appeal of color and shape." He turned to canvas in search of a pure tableau expression, and in this exhibition he will be presenting some of his paintings.

"These days, when we look at things on our smartphones, they all seem to be the same size, but when we go to see them in person, they are sometimes bigger or smaller than we imagined. It's the discomfort or absurdity we feel when we see something that is different to how we imagined it that stays in our minds."

For example, the artist's attempt to paint a vast landscape on a 5cm square canvas shows his intention to stir the senses of the viewer, and viewers will feel their senses being opened as if listening to sounds lurking deep within their bodies.

We are uncertain and anxious

Akimoto says that he is not particularly interested in motifs, and that he only responds to colors and textures when he paints. He says that he feels that words such as "abstract" and "concrete" used in art and design are somehow outdated and no longer valid, and that he wants to express something like the fluctuation range between them.

It was like trying to find a radio channel that didn't match the frequency in the pre-digital era, and the concept that emerged was of a "president" who is known to everyone but whose existence is unclear.

Akimoto says that whether he is making a collage or simply painting on a canvas, he wants to arrive at something that can be called a work of art through the anxious process of not knowing what the final product will be. He also says that the result is "something that is one step away from being a single-panel comic strip."

The essence of life is a pleasant and uncomfortable feeling. In Akimoto's works, which are born from an anxious process, we find ourselves as uncertain and anxious beings.