Marie Maruyama – No. 4

Here’s one of my favorite graduation works at the National Art Center last week, from the hands of Marie Maruyama (丸山麻莉枝) of the Japan Women’s Art University (日本女子美術大学), a series of what looks like cyborg animals but simple titled “No.4″. When I was young I was an avid reader of the cyberpunk sub-genre of Science Fiction, and I would have adored these back then! A ferret, a rabbit, a dog and mouse in a series of mix media sculptures. Well done Ms. Maruyama!

Soushokukei – Kumi Sato

This sculpture by young Kumi Sato (佐藤久美) from Joshibi Art University (女子美術大学) was exhibited at the National Art Center in March this year. It’s obviously a herbivore animal of some kind and it’s titled Soushokukei, which is probably a play on words with the term Soushoku Danshi, a term that has become part of everyday vocabulary among young people here in Japan. I wish I could explain it to you but Wikipedia does it better. Still, it’s a wonderfully crafted sculpture. And as usual, even with my considerable google-fu I fail to find anything about this artist online.

Hopehole

Soon to be graduated from Tokyo’s Joshibi Art University, Ms. Moe Nakamura (中村萌) created these wonderful wood statues for he finals. As usual there’s not much to find about this young artist except that she seems a little bit more active than most. This was a large group of statues that suffered a little bit from being exhibited in the middle of the large room. I would have loved to had more time for these great works!

Nana Harada – Oyasumi Shikikosan

More fantastic art from the young, soon to be graduated women at Tokyo’s famous Joshibi Art University, Nana Harada (原田奈々). This one I really liked: body pillows in the shape of, and printed with photos of, an absolutely ordinary Japanese family. Again, I don’t know anything about the artist or what other work she has done in this series, but I’ll keep my eyes open for anything of interest. Seeing so many great young artists come out of Japanese universities every year makes me both happy and sad: happy that they are so good and sad that they are unrecognized even though their work easily rivals many other much more famous and respected modern artists. More great stuff to come!