Hello Here I Am by Kazuki Takamatsu

Ab ou t The A r t is t Foreword by Alexandra Mazzanti (Dorothy Circus Gallery Director)

Kazuki Takamatsu was born in Japan, a country known as much for its picturesque landscapes and its powerful technological

where every feeling seems to be surrounded by its echo. Takamatsu had his first gallery exhibition in Tokyo, presenting a series

development, as it is for its high rate of

of black and white paintings, portraying

suicides, earthquakes and tsunamis.

depth mapped elaborated architectural

He attended the Department of Oil

scale models of city views, interspersed

Paintings at Tohoku University of

by geometric objects and forms.

Art & Design and graduated in 2001.

In 2007 Takamatsu introduced the

Takamatsu currently lives and works

female body in his artworks. (Artwork

in Sendai, which was devastated by the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami back in 2011.

Following his art studies Takamatsu improved his technique, which is as unique as it is laboriously intricate.

“The Beautiful Night of Depth”) At one time the girl appeared as a solitary figure, floating on the massive constructed-buildings landscapes, in another she was standing naked in front of a wired

The artist creates astonishing abysses in a black and white color

object, as if she was waiting to hear its alien sound.

palette. His artworks disclose contents and iconography that

Then the pregnant twins or their reflections, the sexy dolls or female

are charged with an exquisitely oriental eroticism, linked to the

shapes, the schoolgirls and the children populating the artist’s

power of nature, the Manga culture and hi-tech developments.

paintings started to react at the solitary room he has created for

The artist mixes traditional and modern techniques by fusing

them, and so, as an attentive father, the Artist feeds their curiosity

classic drawing, airbrush and gouache painting with computer

offering them skulls and flowers, gasmasks and pets, signs of what

graphics. Takamatsu’s creative process begins with Shadow/

was outside their flawless but isolated parallel universe, in order to

Depth mapping, a sort of projective shadowing process by which

teach them about danger and beauty. They learned.

shadows are added to 3D computer graphics (note 1) commonly

In 2011, with the Tohoku earthquake, his babies literally tasted

used in pre-rendered scenes and many computer games.

death; and loss was all around. Takamatsu armed his dolls with

The perfect sense of depth given by grayscale shadows is created

katanas (traditional Japanese swards),machine-guns as well as

by carefully studying whether a pixel is visible from the light

godai (the “five great” elements), merging his own urban punk

source, comparing it to a depth image, mapped and stored in

rock culture with the roots of Japanese traditional beliefs.

the form of a texture. In this way every pixel on the object is

Now appearing as hi-tech divinities, the glimpsing x-ray lighted

a shade of gray that is proportional to its distance from the

schoolgirls were showing up with guns while wearing a “heavenly

eye looking at it, so that it appears as realistic as a holograph.

aura” upon their heads, and they started to populate Takamatsu’s

Takamatsu’s snow white based shapes depicted in his paintings

imagery, thus becoming his dominant story.

are obtained entirely by hand, using the Gouache, a method of

Takamatsu, as E. T. A. Hoffmann’s Coppelius, gave birth to a

mixing watercolor pigment with an opaque white pigment in a

Doll. She started interacting with the outside world, she became

watercolor vehicle made with arabic gum (note 2).

powerful. She chose to fight and teach the world.

The matching of these techniques confers to Takamatsu’s digital

Hundreds of Ghostly Dolls evoked by the artist guide the viewer

souls a real sense of absence of gravity and an astonishing depth,

into the immense sacredness of the sea of human emotions,

Ab ou t The A r t is t Foreword by Alexandra Mazzanti (Dorothy Circus Gallery Director)

Kazuki Takamatsu was born in Japan, a country known as much for its picturesque landscapes and its powerful technological

where every feeling seems to be surrounded by its echo. Takamatsu had his first gallery exhibition in Tokyo, presenting a series

development, as it is for its high rate of

of black and white paintings, portraying

suicides, earthquakes and tsunamis.

depth mapped elaborated architectural

He attended the Department of Oil

scale models of city views, interspersed

Paintings at Tohoku University of

by geometric objects and forms.

Art & Design and graduated in 2001.

In 2007 Takamatsu introduced the

Takamatsu currently lives and works

female body in his artworks. (Artwork

in Sendai, which was devastated by the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami back in 2011.

Following his art studies Takamatsu improved his technique, which is as unique as it is laboriously intricate.

“The Beautiful Night of Depth”) At one time the girl appeared as a solitary figure, floating on the massive constructed-buildings landscapes, in another she was standing naked in front of a wired

The artist creates astonishing abysses in a black and white color

object, as if she was waiting to hear its alien sound.

palette. His artworks disclose contents and iconography that

Then the pregnant twins or their reflections, the sexy dolls or female

are charged with an exquisitely oriental eroticism, linked to the

shapes, the schoolgirls and the children populating the artist’s

power of nature, the Manga culture and hi-tech developments.

paintings started to react at the solitary room he has created for

The artist mixes traditional and modern techniques by fusing

them, and so, as an attentive father, the Artist feeds their curiosity

classic drawing, airbrush and gouache painting with computer

offering them skulls and flowers, gasmasks and pets, signs of what

graphics. Takamatsu’s creative process begins with Shadow/

was outside their flawless but isolated parallel universe, in order to

Depth mapping, a sort of projective shadowing process by which

teach them about danger and beauty. They learned.

shadows are added to 3D computer graphics (note 1) commonly

In 2011, with the Tohoku earthquake, his babies literally tasted

used in pre-rendered scenes and many computer games.

death; and loss was all around. Takamatsu armed his dolls with

The perfect sense of depth given by grayscale shadows is created

katanas (traditional Japanese swards),machine-guns as well as

by carefully studying whether a pixel is visible from the light

godai (the “five great” elements), merging his own urban punk

source, comparing it to a depth image, mapped and stored in

rock culture with the roots of Japanese traditional beliefs.

the form of a texture. In this way every pixel on the object is

Now appearing as hi-tech divinities, the glimpsing x-ray lighted

a shade of gray that is proportional to its distance from the

schoolgirls were showing up with guns while wearing a “heavenly

eye looking at it, so that it appears as realistic as a holograph.

aura” upon their heads, and they started to populate Takamatsu’s

Takamatsu’s snow white based shapes depicted in his paintings

imagery, thus becoming his dominant story.

are obtained entirely by hand, using the Gouache, a method of

Takamatsu, as E. T. A. Hoffmann’s Coppelius, gave birth to a

mixing watercolor pigment with an opaque white pigment in a

Doll. She started interacting with the outside world, she became

watercolor vehicle made with arabic gum (note 2).

powerful. She chose to fight and teach the world.

The matching of these techniques confers to Takamatsu’s digital

Hundreds of Ghostly Dolls evoked by the artist guide the viewer

souls a real sense of absence of gravity and an astonishing depth,

into the immense sacredness of the sea of human emotions,

where those digital souls take shape as otherworldly spiritual icons, as bodies of light, marching out of sorrow and darkness towards a newfound zone of beauty and peace, by cutting melancholy as if it were clouds, in a metaphorical dance of swords of emphasized juxtapositions.

The ghostly Dolls seem to pop-up from his huge canvases, so real and eye catching that even when we turn our back we still feel as if we have recognized someone, maybe someone we really have met, or will meet in the future, or maybe simply one of

1

the nocturnal visitors coming from a parallel dimension to say: “Hello, here I am”.

Since 2009 Takamatsu has been collaborating with the Tokyobased Gallery Tomura, with whom he exhibited at the Tokyo Art Fair and Art Asia Miami during the Scope Art Fair. Takamatsu’s art was also exhibited at Rias Ark Museum in Kesennuma - Miyagi.

Takamatsu has also extremely successfully held solo and group exhibitions in USA-based established art galleries such as Roq LaRue in Seattle and Corey Helford in Los Angeles. At the Italybased Dorothy Circus Gallery he has held two solo exhibitions (in 2013 and 2015) and he was featured in the institutional exhibition “Lacrima Aquarium” (2013) which took place at the Aquarium Museum - Casa dell’Architettura in Rome.

1. (note) Commonly used in pre-rendered scenes and many computer games. Lance Williams “Casting curved shadows on curved surfaces” 1978.

2. (note) Traditionally referred to as Gouache, name coming from the Italian Guazzo, literally meaning mud. Gouache is ideal for illustration and photo-reproduction. Since the Gouache paint imparts most of the texture and these surfaces help to create a perfectly flat film of paint on the board, Gouache paintings are typically done on hot pressed papers or smooth art boards.

1 - 2 Artworks details - sensory close up

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where those digital souls take shape as otherworldly spiritual icons, as bodies of light, marching out of sorrow and darkness towards a newfound zone of beauty and peace, by cutting melancholy as if it were clouds, in a metaphorical dance of swords of emphasized juxtapositions.

The ghostly Dolls seem to pop-up from his huge canvases, so real and eye catching that even when we turn our back we still feel as if we have recognized someone, maybe someone we really have met, or will meet in the future, or maybe simply one of

1

the nocturnal visitors coming from a parallel dimension to say: “Hello, here I am”.

Since 2009 Takamatsu has been collaborating with the Tokyobased Gallery Tomura, with whom he exhibited at the Tokyo Art Fair and Art Asia Miami during the Scope Art Fair. Takamatsu’s art was also exhibited at Rias Ark Museum in Kesennuma - Miyagi.

Takamatsu has also extremely successfully held solo and group exhibitions in USA-based established art galleries such as Roq LaRue in Seattle and Corey Helford in Los Angeles. At the Italybased Dorothy Circus Gallery he has held two solo exhibitions (in 2013 and 2015) and he was featured in the institutional exhibition “Lacrima Aquarium” (2013) which took place at the Aquarium Museum - Casa dell’Architettura in Rome.

1. (note) Commonly used in pre-rendered scenes and many computer games. Lance Williams “Casting curved shadows on curved surfaces” 1978.

2. (note) Traditionally referred to as Gouache, name coming from the Italian Guazzo, literally meaning mud. Gouache is ideal for illustration and photo-reproduction. Since the Gouache paint imparts most of the texture and these surfaces help to create a perfectly flat film of paint on the board, Gouache paintings are typically done on hot pressed papers or smooth art boards.

1 - 2 Artworks details - sensory close up

2

The Post Nuclear POP

by Kazuki Takama t su Foreword by Rosa Maria Albino (Art Historian)

Takamatsu represents a milestone in the Japanese Neo Pop movement which begins with Murakami, passing

through

the

adepts of his ultracolorful Superflat, to the expressionist inclinations introduced by Nara.

The artist canbe considered the most

meaningful representative of the Post Nuclear Pop movement both for his innovative style and melancholic poetry.

From the beginning of this century, in all the globalized world, paintings recover their status in representation, handicraft and decoration.

In the land of The Rising Sun this phenomenon is more emphasized thanksto mangas, illustrations and animated works that through their popularity and dissemination have assumed a pivotal role in the socio-cultural education of the Japanese population. Manga and videogames transmit all over the world the concept of kawaii, which means innocent, childlike and graceful aesthetic.

The Art of Kazuki Takamatsu, like that of many Neo Pop artists, feeds itself on the childish universe, populated by adolescent characters who are still kawaii dolls, sometimes shrewd and charged with erotic suggestions, sometimes armed, and other times full of elegance and mystery.

3 Artwork detail - sensory close up

The Post Nuclear POP

by Kazuki Takama t su Foreword by Rosa Maria Albino (Art Historian)

Takamatsu represents a milestone in the Japanese Neo Pop movement which begins with Murakami, passing

through

the

adepts of his ultracolorful Superflat, to the expressionist inclinations introduced by Nara.

The artist canbe considered the most

meaningful representative of the Post Nuclear Pop movement both for his innovative style and melancholic poetry.

From the beginning of this century, in all the globalized world, paintings recover their status in representation, handicraft and decoration.

In the land of The Rising Sun this phenomenon is more emphasized thanksto mangas, illustrations and animated works that through their popularity and dissemination have assumed a pivotal role in the socio-cultural education of the Japanese population. Manga and videogames transmit all over the world the concept of kawaii, which means innocent, childlike and graceful aesthetic.

The Art of Kazuki Takamatsu, like that of many Neo Pop artists, feeds itself on the childish universe, populated by adolescent characters who are still kawaii dolls, sometimes shrewd and charged with erotic suggestions, sometimes armed, and other times full of elegance and mystery.

3 Artwork detail - sensory close up

A s t r ikin g Encou n t er Foreword by Rikiya Tomura (Gallery Tomura Director)

I’ve never forgotten that day.

understand that he is modest and polite. This gap is part of his

It is not an exaggeration. I was looking for that world-class artist

charm as well as his work.

whom I can walk towards a common goal with as a friend.

We took part in the Art fair Tokyo and held the solo exhibition at

When I saw the work of Takamatsu for the first time, I was

my gallery in 2009.

shocked and impressed with his concept, it was something that I

All works were sold out immediately, so then our team started

had never seen before.

from scratch.

Honestly, I was attracted to the beauty of his work.

Takamatsu held the solo exhibition and participated in group

I still remember that I emphasized how amazing his work is! and

exhibitions held in magnificent galleries overseas.

the vision of my future plan.

He is gradually expanding his field of activity around the world.

He has an individual sense of fashion, so people might find it

As a friend who has worked with him, I am looking forward to

hard to go near him. However, people who have met Takamatsu

seeing how he will become world-class.

A s t r ikin g Encou n t er Foreword by Rikiya Tomura (Gallery Tomura Director)

I’ve never forgotten that day.

understand that he is modest and polite. This gap is part of his

It is not an exaggeration. I was looking for that world-class artist

charm as well as his work.

whom I can walk towards a common goal with as a friend.

We took part in the Art fair Tokyo and held the solo exhibition at

When I saw the work of Takamatsu for the first time, I was

my gallery in 2009.

shocked and impressed with his concept, it was something that I

All works were sold out immediately, so then our team started

had never seen before.

from scratch.

Honestly, I was attracted to the beauty of his work.

Takamatsu held the solo exhibition and participated in group

I still remember that I emphasized how amazing his work is! and

exhibitions held in magnificent galleries overseas.

the vision of my future plan.

He is gradually expanding his field of activity around the world.

He has an individual sense of fashion, so people might find it

As a friend who has worked with him, I am looking forward to

hard to go near him. However, people who have met Takamatsu

seeing how he will become world-class.