PROFILE

Born in Akita Prefecture in 1981. His works express a unique and mysterious worldview, and he has had solo exhibitions, murals, and live painting shows both in Japan and abroad. He has produced album covers for numerous artists, as well as personal works. In 2014, he was selected as one of the “42 Modern Psychedelic Visionary Artists You Need To Know.”

DATE

2019

MEDIUM

acrylic, emulsion paint

DIMENSIONS

H296×W450cm

STATEMENT

There are a number of factors that created the world view that I am now expressing.

One is the colorful, expressionless tribal masks that were displaying in the equipment room of a local gymnasium I saw when I was a child.
They had the beautiful color of insects, but at the same time there was something raw and grotesque that I found appealing.
I remember being attracted on seeing scary things.

I was born and raised in the rich nature of the Akita countryside, but because of my father I was exposed to a lot of foreign films and music.
These were tools to allow me to interact with other cultures, and also had an almost magical power to inspire my creativity. They gave me a taste of what it was like to be the hero in a movie even as I went about my daily life.
They were also what first inspired me to become interested in other countries.

Against that backdrop, when I was in elementary school, I saw the jacket of Santana’s album Abraxas, and around puberty I saw Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. These mysterious expressions deeply impressed me, and I was fascinated by the somehow-not-quite-there story quality of these works.

At 22, I traveled to Colombia. There I learned of the existence of shamanism, which also had a tremendous influence on my painting.
What is a god?
What on earth does it mean to feel connect to gods or spirits? What is life? What is death? These kinds of questions are another thing that fascinates me, and led me also to become interested in the spiritual worlds of Shinto and Buddhism. I realized that everything is connected and influenced by unconsciousness and that a harmony is thereby created.
Inspired by colors, stories, and mysteries that make up the world of paintings from these various events, “the harmony of things that conflict” is the theme of my production.

ABOUT MUSIC AND ART

Thanks to my father, I came in contact with western music from a very young age. The first thing that made an impression on me was Santana’s album Abraxas. It’s a given that I am influenced by the music itself, but the mysticism and ethnic quality of the album covers also left a deep impression on me. Later somewhere I fell in love psychedelic and groovy tunes, for example Funkadelic and Hendrix. I remember also being mesmerized by the jacket artwork. Later still was entranced by jazz that seemed to mix in the philosophy of both east and west, like Donald Byrd’s “Cristo Redentor.” My painting theme of “the harmony of things that conflict” also owes a lot to music like this.

TOKIO AOYAMA PLAYLIST