“TENGAI 3.0” Exhibition

“TENGAI 3.0” Exhibition

hpgrp gallery

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hpgrp GALLERY NEW YORK presents “Tengai 3.0”, a group exhibition of Japanese artists. On view will be the works of seven young artists who embody the BASARA aesthetic movement founded by Hisashi Tenmyouya.

Hisashi Tenmyouya is known in Japan for his street art, which embodies samurai themes contrasted with Japanese minimalist concepts that embody zen or wabi-sabi (the Japanese aesthetic embracement of flaws) promoted by masters of the tea ceremony. In 2010 he coined the artistic concept BASARA which promotes distinctly Japanese forms of extroversion, innovation, and eccentricity, in contrast to the delicate features and genre conventions typical of “yayoi” styled Japanese culture. Controversial among academics and more conservative critics in Japan, BASARA envisions itself as a continuance of Japanese movements such as the heroic samurai characters of the Sengoju era, and eccentric Ukiyo-e painters of the Edo era, brought to contemporary art.

In 2014 Tenmyouya started the Tengai project which promotes and fosters the careers of contemporary artists who embody BASARA. This third Tengai project, Tengai 3.0 introduces introduce seven artists ranging from illustrators and painters to artists who defy conventional genres. They revive some elements of samurai paintings, Japanese ironic paintings, Bijin-ga, bird-and-flower paintings and the mechanical dolls of pre-modern era in Japan.

Hisashi Tenmyouya will debut new paintings of samurai, that display the vibrant and outrageous side of Japanese culture. Hajime Sorayama will release a pair paintings of the Statue of Liberty and Hitler, mocking capitalism, and money manipulation. Kenichi Asano is showing new works combining wood carving and LED lights that present the theme of the supernatural possession of a puppet. Hiroaki Ito draws sorrowful figures of Japanese workers; he associates dogeza, a pose symbolizing apology, with hara-kiri, the ultimate apology - ritual suicide. Feebee provides 4 paintings of divine beasts decorated with vivid and intricate designs. On the other hand, Miki Kato draws female figures who wear Japanese traditional kimono. Her paintings combine a modern kimono and a unique background to unite the two eras in Japanese history. Lastly, current-student Moeko Kageyama draws fantastic, surreal cascading landscapes that may remind one of the waterfalls of Hokusai.

Media

• Painting

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