Scion presents
Insiders, Outsiders, and The Middle curated by Giant Robot
Above: Adrian Johnson
Cover: Kami Inside back cover and over: Ed Trask
Scion presents
Insiders, Outsiders, and The Middle curated by Giant Robot August 2 - August 23 Scion Installation L.A. 3521 Helms Ave. (at National) Culver City, CA 90232 scion.com/space/ 310-815-8840
Noriko Ashino/apod (Japan) Nao Harada (Japan) Kami (Japan) Adrian Johnson (UK) Ed Trask (USA) Shinya Yamamoto (Japan) Space Invader (France) ZariganiWorks/Taro Mukasa and Yoshitane Sakamoto (Japan)
About The Show The definition of art seems to expand with each passing month. At Giant Robot, it ranges from straight contemporary painting to sculpted figures (which were considered action figures just a few years ago). But Insiders, Outsiders, and The Middle celebrates not the disparate mediums but the divergent mindsets of artists–as well as the gray areas. Insiders are artists who work so hard in front of their computers that they don’t leave their chairs long enough to hang their pieces on walls. More often, their art is found onscreen, in print, and on T-shirts. Adrian Johnson is an example from the UK, with a retro drawing style inspired by children’s books. The other Insiders are from Japan. Noriko Ashino runs the “a piece of design” firm, and specializes in a variety of disciplines including character design and graphics. Sometimes known as ZariganiWorks, the duo of Taro Mukasa and Yoshitane Sakamoto are responsible for the infamous Suicide Bomb Button, have created the Kore Janai Robo (which has gone from being handmade out of wood to being produced in vinyl with a TV show), and freelance design toys, characters, and products. Outsiders include Space Invader, a street artist from Paris who makes his mark on walls around the world and calls each tiled piece an “invasion.” He painstakingly documents each one before it gets ripped down–either by city workers or collectors–and publishes his work in books and maps. Kami is revered as a graffiti legend in Tokyo. His pieces often resemble flowing water, and he has successfully transitioned from the streets to art galleries. And then there’s The Middle. The original work of Kyoto-based Shinya Yamamoto has been found in many exhibitions as well as the drum set of Sonic Youth’s Steve Shelley. Part Basquiat and part left-brain madness, his style is free flowing and dreamy. Nao Harada, proprietor of the Wrecks clothing line, sketches, draws, and paints with no regard to what art means. He rides around on his BMX leaving stickers and tags around Tokyo. The lone American in the group, Ed Trask, is from Virginia but he tours constantly as the drummer for the veteran punk band Avail. Through painting, he recalls and reinterprets the slices of Americana that he sees on the road. Although there is no obvious correlation between the artists, they form a powerful cross section of creative forces that are physically active with their art. They belie the image of the stationary artist and pose the question of how they will co-exist in a restrained gallery setting.
Noriko Ashino (a piece of design) Noriko Ashino lives in Tokyo, Japan. She was an in-house creator for Sony Creative Products Inc., where she acted as an Art Director, Creative Director, and designer. Today, as “a piece of design,� she specializes in graphic design, character design, art direction, and illustration for hire. 1990 - 1993
Graphic Design Department (Tama Art University)
1994 - 2004
Art Director, Graphic Designer (Sony Creative Products Inc.)
2004 -
Freelance Creator (A piece of design)
Member of JAGDA (Japan Graphic Designers Association)
Nao Harada The Tokyo-based pseudo-hermit, hater, and member of the secret WRECKS art crew grew up on crazy manga and funny movies. He piles up illustrations with a negative and lazy indie spirit combined with a design sense forged from years in Tokyo hell. In addition to making art on canvas, stickers, and old skateboard decks, Nao is the mastermind behind the WRECKS clothing brand.
Kami Kami was born in Kyoto, where he was surrounded by tradition and natural landscape, and lives in Tokyo, Japan’s focal point for skateboarding and street culture. These dual environments have influence the artist’s flexible mentality and strong-yet-slick style of “contrast and repetition.” His freehanded line quality is classic but contains a pop flavor that pops off any wall or canvas and makes a strong impression on the viewer. Incorporating not only his lifestyle but also his hope for the future in his linework, Kami actively produces art (mostly wall paintings) throughout Japan and abroad with a dynamic vision.
Adrian Johnson Adrian Johnson is a London-based illustrator/image maker with a profound talent for “doing nothing in particular.” Amongst his many clients are Paul Smith, MasterCard, Stüssy, Monocle, and 2K. Sometimes described as simple, sophisticated, or plain silly, Johnson’s work is constantly evolving, juxtaposing satirical wit, bold graphic compositions, and a unique charm.
Ed Trask When Ed Trask isn’t touring with the formidable DIY punk band Avail, he trades in his drumsticks for paint brushes. Whether applied guerrillastyle on a condemned building, screwed onto a construction site wall, or created as a commissioned art, the Virginia-based artist’s works breathe unexpected life into public locations, jolting pedestrians and motorists out of their everyday slumber, celebrating forgotten aesthetics and discarded values, and firing the imagination. In specific, he tries to capture the sense of what the urban landscape was like before it turned into an urban blight-type landscape. Trask’s studio works capture his experiences as a young person growing up in a farming culture that is now gone. In contrast to how many younger artists who adhere to modern, trendy, and tough styles, the VCU-trained painter strives to create a soft, nostalgic air of what used to be.
Shinya Yamamoto Born: Kyoto, Japan, 1968 Artistic Inspirations: Travel, garbage, time, madness, emptiness Primary Motif: Space Themes: Using materials at hand to create brutal, childlike images often mistaken for cuteness Recent Projects: 2007
Drum head and backdrop artwork for Sonic Youth show (Osaka, Japan)
Closer to Carbon - 17th Films at Theater Artaud (San Francisco, CA)
Solo exhibition Keibunsya Gallery (Kyoto, Japan)
2008
Group art show: SONIC YOUTH ETC.: SENSATION YOUTH (Traveling)
Space Invader Some people call him a polluter, others say he’s an artist. Always appearing masked in public, the anonymous Frenchman’s goal is to “invade” cities all over the world with characters inspired by first-generation arcade games, and especially the now-classic Space Invaders. He make his pieces out of tiles for an ultra-pixelated appearance and cements them to walls. Not a week goes by without new Invaders appearing, and each one is numbered, photographed, and carefully indexed. Some of the information is published in Invasion Guides that retrace the history of a particular invasion. The first two volumes are for Paris and Los Angeles. Space Invader also shows work in institutions or galleries, and is currently working on a project that uses Rubik’s Cube, the ’80s cult puzzle, as the basis for pictures and sculptures. He calls this his “RubikCubist” period. .
ZariganiWorks ZariganiWorks is a multi-creative company consisting of Taro Mukasa and Yoshitane Sakamoto. They produce handmade toys as creative brand “Taro Shoten� in addition to character design, graphic design, and other creative works. They also write music, songs, and stories, and their activities are expanding year by year.
About Giant Robot Giant Robot magazine began in 1994 as a stapled-and-folded zine and has grown into a full-fledged bimonthly magazine available at most stores and newsstands. Giant Robot opened its first store in 2001, and formulated a combination of pop-culture goods, including imported Japanese toys, graphic design and art books, and monthly art exhibitions. Since then, Giant Robot has opened stores and galleries in San Francisco and New York City, and also operates a restaurant called gr/eats in West Los Angeles. Curating the exhibition is the publisher/co-editor and owner, Eric Nakamura who curates most of the 36 exhibitions Giant Robot presents annually in the three cities.
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Space Invader
Above: Adrian Johnson
Scion Installation L.A. 3521 Helms Ave. (at National) Culver City, CA 90232 scion.com/space/ 310-815-8840