Essentials/Blog

Check out these amazing manhole covers from Japan. The blog, Pink Tentacle, has the most amazing collection I have ever seen. Perfect combination of art, craft, and public policy.

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Yusaku Hanakuma is one of the most well received cult “hero” illustrator and cartoonist in Japan. He is the recipient of The Choice 13th Grand Prix Award and one of his most popular works, “Tokyo Zombie” was adapted for the big screen which became a huge success. You can see in his chararacters, Hanakuma is [...]

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The Chiba City Museum of Art near Tokyo has one of the larges ukiyo-e (art of the floating world) woodblock print collections in the world. Appliya collaborated with the museums’ curators to create Ukiyo-e Beauties, an app that puts high-res, digitally restored versions of geisha-like women on your iPhone screen. Great for those who have [...]

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DJ, digital and video artist, Daito Manabe put together this experimental video of his friends’ physical reactions to music. Be patient through the first minute or so as it gets much more interesting. Oh, and be sure to get to the end. The reactions of the “musical instruments” are cute. Learn more about the man [...]

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Taking the ancient craft of origami to a new extreme, Giant Robot invited artists and the art-minded to cut, tear, sew, and fold a downloadable paper robot pattern to create original versions. The winning works are being shown in PAPERSHAPERS. Shin Tanaka, the progressively interactive Japanese artist who enabled people around the world to create their own entries [...]

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A Survey of the Work of Roger Shimomura

Here’s a show that shouldn’t be missed. If you are anywhere in the Delray Beach area of Florida, you should check this exhibit out…
Artist Roger Shimomura was two years old when his family was interned at Minidoka after the entry of the U. S. into World War II.  Forced [...]

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How cool is this… It is a 23.6 foot tall aluminum robot called “Giant Torayan”. Created by Japanese artist Kenji Yanobe, the robot blows fire into the air during a rehearsal of the “Roppongi Art Night” special art event at Roppongi Hills in Tokyo, Japan. The event is aiming to transform the entire area of Roppongi [...]

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The Korea Times has an article on one of my favorite Japanese artists, Tadanori Yokoo. Apparently, Yokoo and Kawashima (also awesome):
are currently holding separate exhibitions in Seoul this month, offering a rare opportunity to examine the country’s pop art by artists from distinctly different generations.
Read the full article here.

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The New York Times has a good synopsis on what is happening for Asia Week. In case you don’t know about it, Asia Week:
begins on Saturday in New York, is like a marathon, requiring agility, stamina and focus. Unlike Art Basel, Asia Week has no promoter organizing the activities; they are mostly dealer-driven. And while most [...]

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I fell down the rabbit hole that is the interweb late this evening and discovered  the Brooklyn-based artist Yuken Teruya. Normally I shy away from art made from recycled materials - it can feel a little preachy, no? - but this artist really found a way to find a creative balance between making a statement [...]

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