Hisashi Tenmyouya

A few weeks ago, I was reading The New Yorker and found out about an art exhibit called Bye Bye Kitty!!! (http://www.byebyekittyart.org/).

There's a wide variety of work being shown, but this piece by Hisashi Tenmyouya stuck out:

Around the same time I read about the exhibit, I had started watching a series of DVDs about Japanese artists. I had only watched the films about Yayoi Kusama and Yoshitomo Nara because those were the only ones available on Netflix. After a little research, I found out that the other four films were available to rent on the internet (http://www.newpeopleartistseries.com/) for $2.99. Because I'm an obsessive completest, I got to work watching the rest. Guess who had his own movie? Hisashi Tenmyouya.

I found out from the documentary that our friend Hisashi isn't just doing traditional stuff. Have a look!

This painting was commissioned for the 2006 World Cup. The gold background appears often in his work.

What happens when you take some Mortal Kombat/Street Fighter (were they that different? I'm not a guy so I don't know) and fuse it with traditional Japanese style?

KO.

What about traditional Japanese art mixed with graffiti (which is now very legitimate and even in museums right now as you read this! http://www.moca.org/museum/exhibitiondetail.php?id=443)?

What about if you take a little of this (skip to 2:45 to see the shit get real):

+ classical Japanese art=

The thing I really liked about the documentary was watching Tenmyouya's artistic process. Tenmyouya originally started out doing commercial artwork for record companies (ala Sonny Malone in Xanadu). He applies the same work ethic while working on his fine art. Tenmyouya works up to 15 hours a day on a painting, but he is worried that his neighbors, who don't know he's an artist, will think he's a bum because he never leaves his apartment.