Japanese artist Teppei Takeda uses the trompe l’oeil technique to recreate the act of painting in the form of abstract portraits. The completed paintings are anonymous, rather than of a specific person, and are meticulously put together through highly detailed paintings of gestural strokes.
Continue reading
Designer Akira Minagawa, of the faux-Finnish brand minä perhonen, has collaborated with seasoned architect Yoshifumi Nakamura to renovate and transform a Kyoto machiya into a rentable guesthouse.
Continue reading
One way to obscure a time period when sculpting the human body is to depict them naked. Fashion can make certain periods easily identifiable but by removing that element, the subject is placed in timelessness. The Japanese photographer employs this technique in his artwork by photographing a Tokyo void of any single humans. And in a region with 38 million people, this isn’t an easy task.
Continue reading
Daisho Suisan is not your ordinary Japanese seafood company. In addition to their dealings in frozen seafood, they also do web design and illustration. So when, in 2014, the company decided to add tea bags to their line of businesses it probably wasn’t too extraordinary. The problem, however, is that they couldn’t find anyone who would make they type of intricate teabags they were looking for. So they decided to do it themselves.
Continue reading
Mysterious. Vulnerable. Adorable. These are just a few of the words one might use to describe the work of sculptor Moe Nakamura. The 31-year old Tokyo-based artist creates imaginative sculptures of child-like figures, carving each out of single blocks of wood.
Continue reading
Mifuneyama Rakuen Park is a sprawling natural sanctuary in Kyushu that was created in 1845. It is home to some of Japan’s most spiritual and sacred objects of nature such as trees that are hundreds (and in some cases, thousands) of years old. The site is also home to enormous megaliths. Almost supernatural in their formation, they have been preserved as a dwelling place of god. These enormous stones serve as inspiration for digital art collective TeamLab’s latest on-site installation.
Continue reading
If you’ve ever visited Japan’s magical art island of Naoshima you’ll most certainly have visited one of its most iconic pieces of art: Yayoi Kusama’s yellow pumpkin that sits at the tip of an abandoned pier. Although the waters of Japan’s Inland Sea are mostly calm, during the summer the pumpkin becomes susceptible to high winds and waves brought on by numerous hurricanes.
Continue reading
Symbiosis is the theme of Daigo Daikoku’s debut U.S. installation, which features real flowers, light, and augmented reality that blends the physical and digital worlds. Titled “Art of the Bloom,” the exhibition is currently on display at Edison Theater in Long Beach, California.
Continue reading
The immense and sprawling Tokyo subway system seems to be permanently under construction. It’s good to see a metropolis investing in what is already an excellent public transportation infrastructure system but for heavy users it can be frustrating to find your path blocked by temporary walls and detours.
But several years ago, straphangers began noticing elegant typography crafted from duct tape, directing passengers to station exits and platforms.
Continue reading
“Ikemen Kanno Emaki” (イケメン官能絵巻), or Scroll of Handsome and Sensual Men, is a series of artworks that were installed earlier this year at Kokujoji Temple in Japan’s Niigata prefecture. Established in the year 709, the temple is believed to be the oldest in the region. And yet it, along with many other temples dotted across the land, has been plagued by a decline in visitors. So in an attempt to drum up interest, particularly among young women, head priest Kotetsu Yamada decided to invite Tokyo-based artist Ryoko Kimura to create the scrolls.
Continue reading
