It’s a roundup of the works that caught my eye at the Tokyo University of the Arts diploma exhibition held in January 2019.
Yuki Yano
Yuki Yano, a graduate student in the Oil Painting Technical and Material Research Lab. He kindly walked me through his work in person: the piece featuring Bakabon’s Papa is layered with a range of messages. The theme is “the cycle of life.” Godzilla appears as a metaphor for nuclear energy. The composition traces a path from the windmill in the lower right, through anthropoids and Bakabon, all the way to the sperm implanting itself on the moon.
Mutsumi Myojin
The monochrome works, unified in tone, saw their contrast further dissolved by the dimmed classroom lighting — and yet the sheer force of the work still came through with striking power.
Yang Bo
“river,” a paired work, brings past and future into intersection. The staging of the piece, which drew the viewer’s gaze in, was particularly well-handled.
Chihiro Inui
Chihiro Inui from the Casting Lab at the Tokyo University of the Arts. Her work stacks up the positions and titles she has been given, and then, through her own face hidden behind a mirror, poses a question back to the viewer.
Anna Ochiai Scripcariu
Anna Ochiai Scripcariu, from the Global Art Practice program (GAP) in the Graduate School of Fine Arts, presented a massive installation measuring 9m × 8m × 2m. The piece offers a range of insights through the viewer’s own bodily experience. A deeply artistic work carrying its own message.
Manami Numata
From the Oil Painting Lab.
The sheer volume of information packed into the piece, together with the quality and quantity of her mark-making, felt as though a great range of different labors had all been laid down onto the canvas.
Risa Saito
Risa Saito’s work had a real depth to it — rich, resonant, and one of the most memorable of the show.
Natsuki Okada
Natsuki Okada, from the Design Department, hand-built almost the entire self-propelling motorbike himself (the engine was a swap). It was one of the standout draws in the exhibition space.
Akina Mihara
Mihara, from the Oil Painting Department, showed work with real impact.
The students and works highlighted here are only a small selection.
The fourth-year Oil Painting Department’s diploma show “Scale” is covered separately below.
Individual features on other students are collected here as well.
