Hey guys!

I just got back from a nice vacation in Japan, and I wanted to share some of the cool art I saw there. I went with my partner Bo (also an artist) so we always go to museums or galleries when we travel. It’s one of my favorite things to do with him on trips!

We stayed in Tokyo for the first half of the trip, and while we were shopping around Shibuya this one evening, we wandered into a small gallery called YOD Tokyo Gallery. We were drawn in by these incredible animal sculptures by Yoshie Kuroda.

From afar, they looked like cute stuffed animals but, as you go up close, you see the raw stitching and intertwining textures of different materials that make each one feel like a Frankenstein. It was a little haunting to see animals combined with human-like body parts. She primarily uses discarded clothing and waste for her work and I love how she balances raw and delicate textures and materials in each piece.

This goat one was almost as large as me and was really impressive!

Wandering around Tokyo is always fun because you stumble into these little art spaces and discover artists you’ve never seen before.

Another fun little thing I did was visit my pieces at Mograg Gallery! Their gallery was so cozy and it was a beautifully designed show. It was kind of funny to be in Japan and then step inside the gallery and feel like I was back home in LA because of all the familiar artists on the wall. I got to chat with one of the Gallery owners, Motoko, who told me about how fun the opening night was.

I especially loved this little back corner of the gallery where all of the sculptures were playfully displayed. Loved the little visit.

After stopping by Mograg Gallery, we took a quick 15 min walk to Ueno Park, which is a large public park (kind of like Central Park) with several art museums. We visited the Tokyo National Museum to catch the Ukiyo-E in Play exhibit.

Ukiyo-e means “art of the floating world”, and describes an art movement in Japan from the 17th to 19th centuries where many artists depicted the fun and pleasurable aspects of fleeting moments in everyday life. Many artworks during that time were done and preserved as traditional woodblock prints. This exhibit was an incredibly comprehensive collection of woodblock prints from the Edo period, all the way to contemporary work. Here are some of my favorite highlights.

This incredible print of an illustration by Shigeru Mizuki, a manga artist in Japan who is credited for popularizing Yokai. He created the wildly popular and beloved manga, “GeGeGe on Kitaro”. To see his incredible draftsmanship and characters bursting with personality all preserved in this exquisite woodblock print was insane. I could not take my eyes off of the cross-hatching in particular on the Gashadokuro, the giant skeleton yokai.

Another incredible display was of the actual woodblock carving plates. It was mind-bending to see the meticulously carved delicate lines and shapes in the wood. This was a massive wood carving of Keiichi Tanaami’s illustration. We also saw his work in a fun “Ramen Exhibit” at 21_21 Design Sight in Tokyo Midtown. His work is usually very vibrant and chaotic so it was refreshing to see this all-black carving of his work. It beautifully showcased his incredibly detailed and precise linework. To think someone hand-carved this level of detail into a block of wood was unbelievable.

My favorite contemporary woodblock pieces were of this artist, Alex Dodge. His use of patterns to convey form was mesmerizing. His pieces were a nice balance between the simple and complex. I could not wrap my head around how they even carved the fuzzy parts on the head on this one…

And of course, we had to stop by James Jean’s woodblock print. I was especially a fan of this Chrysanthemum piece. James Jean’s iconic linework was beautifully captured in this print as well. I would have loved to see the woodblock carving for this one, but unfortunately it was not on display.

Another favorite was this piece by Sanya Kantarovsky. I just loved how delicate and simple the hands and the facial expressions were. There was something pleasantly tactile about his work that scratched my brain in the right way. Definitely reminded me of Egon Schiele and Gustav Klmit’s work.

The whole exhibit was incredibly designed and it was really informative to see how woodblock printing was used throughout history. We were lost in all of the incredible work in there and had to be dragged out at closing time haha. I've never made any wood block prints before so it was just eye opening to see how delicate and detailed you can get with them. I hope this skillful art form continues to be passed down to the next generations.

One last little thing I want to share is this thing I like to do during my trips to Tokyo, which is to find stickers of artists I know as I walk around the city! This time, I was on the hunt for my friend, HAL’s stickers.

I met HAL the last time I was in Japan for business when we were there to debut our new comic, Blitmap, at Tokyo Comicon. He was a fan of the comics and gave us a bunch of custom graffiti stickers when we met up with him for a drink. He also hand-carved an eraser stamp of one of my comic covers and used it in his graffiti stickers! I admire his creativity and we’ve kept in touch as he continues to thrive in the graffiti and street artist community in Tokyo. It’s always a lot of fun walking around Tokyo trying to find his stickers, and I managed to find one with my drawing in the background!

Tokyo is always buzzing with such unique creatives so I love visiting to get inspired. I hadn’t taken decent time off this year so I had a great time looking at good art, eating good food, and spending some time with family. Now that I’m back, I’m excited to bring that energy into my own work and experiment with new materials and methods.

Thanks so much for reading this far into my little Japan art round-up! Did you like this type of post? If you’ve been to Japan, let me know what kinds of cool or weird stuff you’ve seen there in the comments!