Artokyo: KYOTARO – Clad in the Universe

Yesterday I led an ‘Artokyo’ Tour – a fully customized Maction Planet experience where the main focus was ‘art’ – visiting several museums and galleries around the Urahara/Harajuku/Omotesando area, checking out the work of both established and up-and-coming contemporary artists. We had also managed to arrange sessions with gallery owners to discuss their ethos and their plans for 2017. We thank them for their time and the insights they provided our guests.

Our final stop, before me and my guests headed for a drink to further digest the amazing works we had seen that day, was the Diesel Art Gallery. We are extremely lucky to have some of the largest fashion houses and department stores devote space to supporting contemporary art, both homegrown and overseas.

The current exhibition, which runs until 28 May, is called “Clad in the Universe”, with works by KYOTARO. Born in Kyoto in 1978, she graduated from the graphic design at Kyoto Saga University of Arts in 1998. She currently splits her time Tokyo and her hometown of Kyoto.  

The spirit of the exhibition,“clothing for people living 100,000 years in the future” is best summed up by KYOTARO’s statement:

A 100 thousand years from now,
what will the earth look like?
Will humans, animals, or plants exist?
What kind of clothes will future humans be wearing? Perhaps they’ ll be of material similar to light.
Many emotions arise from the world of imagination. Unknown wisdom yet to be discovered is perhaps still dormant on this Earth.
I first look up at the universe from Earth, imagining far-away galaxies and planets, and once again come back to Earth’ s indubitable existence that graces us with rich emotion. My hope is that this exhibition will be an opportunity to see what’ s in front of us from a slightly different angle.
I have imbued into my paintings elements of a dimension which can be perceived through light.
I hope that my audience will be able to feel and sense this light.

The exhibition features 13 large scale works and 80 smaller works. They are all for sale – larger works ranging in price from approximately ¥400,000 to ¥800,000, with smaller works around ¥15,000 to ¥50,000. The primarily pencilled works are beautiful, and the gallery space complements the art wonderfully. 

Visitors can purchase some of KYOTARO’s books and some postcards of exhibited works. This is useful as the gallery only allows photography of one of the works exhibited. (The featured photo above). KYOTARO will be doing a signing event at the gallery on 28th April from 19:00 to 21:00.

Maction Planet can include ‘Artokyo’ elements as part of your fully customized Tokyo experience. Contact us at info@mactionplanet.com to arrange yours!