Kyoto University of Art and Design Graduate School Graduation Show
I visited the graduation and postgraduate degree show at Kyoto University of Art and Design.
The artist who made the strongest impression on me was Shinya Azuma, a graduate student at Kyoto University of Art and Design.
Azuma says he aims to make powerful works — the kind you can’t forget after a single glance.
He jots down news and scenes from everyday life as drawings, then works these up into tableaux in oil.
The brushstrokes seem to dance across the canvas in vivid color, opening up a genuinely joyful world.
Every work makes you feel: painting is nothing but fun! It’s as if we, the viewers, are being drawn right in.
What world are these motifs from?
It feels as if you’re being lured into a fantasy world — as if you’ve become a subject caught under the artist’s spell.
“Was painting always this much fun?” — I found myself delighted by these free-spirited, expansive works.
While viewing the works, I was reminded of Koji Nakazono.
The sense of the sheer joy of painting reaching the viewer was something I hadn’t felt since the Koji Nakazono exhibition at the Yokosuka Museum of Art — it stirred that feeling back to life.
This is an artist whose future I’m truly looking forward to.
