“Beyond The Ukiyo-e”

Kenji Iwasaki‘s main idea as an Ukiyo-e artist is to make the japanese people interest in

Ukiyo-e comes back.

His artworks “2” for Taiwan

During the Edo-period（Ancient Japan）,Ukiyo-e was a popart of the Japanese masses.

Japanese scenary, Kabuki player, food, portrait of beautiful woman, animal,they were all drawn on ukiyo-e, and they were excellent contents that were sold at cheap prices on paper prints.

But in modern times ukiyo-e is a high price, almost like luxury art. Therefore,only a few people can buy an ukiyo-e print.

In this situation, a lot of people lost interest into Ukiyo-e art.

Now, ukiyo-e awareness in japan is very low.

Kenji Iwasaki started his art to spread ukiyo-e to the people in Japan and the world.

His ukiyo-e illustration published with a article for foreign travelers.

In his Ukiyoe-style, he depicts the traditional Japanese brush technics and delicate color balance, expressing both of Contemporary & traditional japenese unique style.

He uses Acrylic paint and Photoshop,then explains to everyone how to draw an Ukiyo-e with an original style.

He exposed his art in London, espacio gallery,Chelsea,NY, Pleiades Gallery and Kaohsiung, Taiwan, The Pier-2 Art Center.

He showcased the Ukiyo-e style giving to the visitor a refreshing suprise.

In NY

His unique style of projecting his Japanese art on European and American pop-culture consist of using Japanese traditional art Ukiyo-e to tie people of different nationalities all over the world together, and their ‘understanding of diversity’ and ‘mutual cooperation’. This is the message that KENJI wants to transmit through his art.

His customer’s house who bought his original picture.

His art style in Europe and America pop-culture is highly popular, and at the Japanese art show 2018 held at the Espacio gallery in London, he won a bronze prize in original picture distribution and audience voting.

The final goals of KENJI IWASAKI is “to make the japanese people interest in Ukiyo-e comes back. ” and “to connect with everyone using Ukiyo-e”.

That’s his view of the world “Beyond The Ukiyo-e”.

（text by marketor Mathieu Deligne）

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KENJI IWASAKI Ukiyo-e style artist/Painter/Illustrator

There was no one who likes art in his family, he is a self-taught artist and was painting alone from early childhood.

After 3.11 (Great East Japan earthquake), he asked himself, “What is life and death?” , he said, ” People are enjoying their life at the fullest even during difficult time and produce in this process a lot of art pieces. ” The art of Ukiyo-e during Edo period was a reflection of these difficult times, which was a very popular theme.

Instagram:@kenjiwasaki

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2018.5 『Japanese Art Show 2018 in London』（Espacio Gallery,London）

2018.7 『HIDEKKY GARAGE!!』（GARAGE KAGURAZAKA,Tokyo）

2018.8 『JCAT Summer Exhibition“We”』（Pleiades Gallery,NY）

2018.10 Published by『SUKIDESU MAGAZINE』French web magazine

2018.12 Published by『ZEKKEI JAPAN』Jpananese travel web site to foreign visitor

2019.4 『ART TAIWAN & JAPAN 2019』（The Pier-2 Art Center,Kaohsiung Taiwan）

2019.10 『ART JAPAN 2019 in Melbourne』（Brunswick Street Gallery,Merbolune）

Thanks.

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