Superflat, pop and Kawaii aesthetics: this is what characterizes the Japanese artist’s unprecedented production
A Japanese artist, now moved to Milan, for years she has been contaminating the great Western art with the myths of manga culture in the wake of the micro-Pop trend.
His style, completely original and unmistakable, mixes the suggestions coming from the Pop tradition with those of the new Superflat art of Murakami and the stylized figures of Nara Yoshimoto, with whom the artist studied in Japan.
Super Flat is a theory of contemporary art, elaborated by Murakami, which stems from the pop reinterpretation of “flat” painting, that is, the absence of perspective depth, one of the most original expressions of traditional Japanese art. The kawaii aesthetic (which literally means cute, cool, cute), is instead a code of mass culture that feeds on Manga, animated films, fashion and design, in which the new generations recognize themselves. Simple and recognizable images.
Tomoko’s art is in continuous dialogue between past and present, between icons of traditional art on the one hand and the most famous brands on the other, which are tastefully introduced between irony and satire, becoming the emblem of the contemporary and of the society of the global economy and mass consumption.
The artist’s choice to revisit subjects taken from the past, and in particular from the history of art, is always characterized by the desire to lighten and desacralize historical references through an ironic and playful language.
An example of this is the series dedicated to the Gioconda, where the image is increasingly “corrupted” by the advancing background, as if the icon became inconsistent and transparent in relation to the pictorial space, to the brushstroke, which becomes the real protagonist; or Salome, transformed for the occasion into a funny pop icon whose head is presented to us resting on a plate (the same on which the woman is said to present the head of the Baptist to Herod); or the same Our Lady of Milan transformed, incredibly, into a youthful and superpop icon where the whole figure and the elements that surround it are highlighted by the bright and bright background.
And again, here are the male characters mysteriously transformed by Tomoko’s magic into as many female characters: such as St. Jerome, an erudite ascetic immortalized by many artists in a cave with his books, transforming, in this pop version, into any girl of today, locked in her bedroom with smartphones and PCs.
Tomoko can be counted, without any doubt, among the most interesting exponents of Japanese new pop and her pictorial language is absolutely worth discovering. You will be fascinated!
INFO: Tomoko Nagao
PHOTO COURTESY: www.studiokiabai.com
Chiara Mattavelli
