Hikari Shimoda is set to unveil a new series of paintings at Megumi Ogita Gallery in Tokyo, Japan on October 4th. This marks her first major solo with the gallery, with a spectacular evolution of her paintings as she continues to contemplate the drama of today's world with this new body of work, "Current Location". Megumi Ogita Gallery will host an opening reception with Hikari in attendance on October 4th, 6pm - 8pm. Check out a sneak peek below!
For purchase inquiries, please contact the gallery at [email protected].
On this new body of work, Hikari shares: "Many are familiar with the style of “Superflat” as being connected to the Japanese fine art subculture but my creative journey is not a part of that. Character art is now so prevalent in the art world that it is often mocked as being redundant or "boring to see." This could be due to the achievements of artists up to now, or it could mean that drawing is no longer a privilege. In particular, the boundaries between subculture and high art in painting have become blurred, and it continues to be consumed symbolically without any particular meaning."
For purchase inquiries, please contact the gallery at [email protected].
"I had almost no academic art education- I liked manga and anime, so I drew manga and illustrations. To me, my characters were my own voice. There was no connection to past art history. The characters I draw are myself: vessels of my emotions that have lost their place, androgynous children who have gender dysphoria and misogyny built into them, and lonely feelings that want someone to understand and love them. I think that works drawn by women particularly often contain "themselves," but this tends to be looked down upon, and there is no foundation yet for it to be properly evaluated. While I find that men create a context with the symbolic expression of the character, I project onto the character "my story and my history" that does not fit anywhere else."
"Even if it cannot be connected to anything, leaving an individual behind will probably become history- the traces of an individual's life are history."
For purchase inquiries, please contact the gallery at [email protected].
"Current Location" will be on view October 4th through October 26th, 2024 at:
Megumi Ogita Gallery
B1 Ginza Otsuka Bldg.
2-16-12 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0061
メグミオギタギャラリー
〒104-0061
東京都中央区銀座2-16-12 銀座大塚ビルB1