By: Rebecca Brando, November 26, 2019
‘Tokyo Pop Underground’ opened this Saturday (Nov 23rd) at the Jeffrey Deitch Gallery, Los Angeles. The exhibition, curated by Shinji Nanzuka, a premier Tokyo-based contemporary art gallery, recently took over Deitch’s location on North Orange Drive, to host the large scale group exhibition entitled - Tokyo Pop Underground. The exhibit showcases the dynamic work of the seventeen artists included to expand on 40 years of Japanese contemporary art from the 60s to the present day.
Highlights on display are Hajime Sorayama’s robots with two rows of glass encased ‘Sexy Robot’ sculptures along with Japanese artist, Haroshi’s, towering display of repurposed wooden skateboard decks his friends and pro skateboarders donated. The exhibit showcases the unity between both underground Japanese and American graffiti and skateboarding subcultures.
Artist Hajime Sorayama's display of glass encased 'Sexy Robots'
Nanzuka’s mission in this exhibition is to present contemporary artistic commentaries on this Japanese artistic heritage. The artists reflect the strains in contemporary Japanese culture as it rebuilt itself after the ruins of war and confronts many natural disasters. Their work reflects what Nanzuka describes as “the crazy cross-cultural exchange” between the West, the East, and the Far East, shaping a new international artistic language.
The artists participating in Tokyo Pop Underground are:
Makoto Azuma
Haroshi
Namio Harukawa
Hiroh Kikai
Akiyoshi Mishima
Masato Mori
Tetsuya Nakamura
Yoshiro Nishi aka Yoshirotten
Toshio Saeki
Koichi Sato
Hajime Sorayama
Keiichi Tanaami
Makoto Taniguchi
Hiroki Tsukuda
Kazuki Umezawa
Harumi Yamaguchi
Yuichi Yokoyama
Tokyo Pop Underground is Free and will run from November 23, 2019–January 18, 2020 at the Jeffrey Deitch Gallery, 925 North Orange Drive, Los Angeles.
For more info visit: deitch.com