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The New Contemporary Art Magazine
Hiroki Tsukuda's moody and graphical landscapes incorporate elements of traditional Japanese arts and pop culture imagery. The Japanese artist has been residing in Germany for the past few months while his current exhibition, "Colla Max", shows at Warhus Rittershaus Gallery in the city of Cologne. We recently met with him at his temporary open studio space at Autocenter in Berlin, Germany. The project is part of an international residence program curated by Tokyo based art gallery, Nanzuka Underground. Despite the rare opportunity to travel abroad, Tsukada says that it has little effect on his creative thinking. His drawings exhibit a rather neo-futuristic world view, a futuristic re-imagining of the visual and functionality of rapidly growing cities like Tokyo, where he lives. But unlike other neo-futurism artists, Tsukada teeters visually between old and new.
While typography was the theme of "Alphabet Show: Every Letter Counts" at White Walls in San Francisco, the diverse line-up of artists interpreted this idea loosely. Some, Meryl Pataky with her glowing, neon "Y" chose to present their calligraphy with clean, legible type. Meanwhile, others like Sergio Garcia created unconventional adaptations of their letters. Garcia's "W" consisted of two hyper-realist sculptures of hands popping out of the wall, each one throwing up the "West Coast" sign. Apex, who is known to be prolific in both graffiti and fine art, created an homage to bombing with a tagged-up crate of spray cans serving as an installation element to go with his painted letter "A." Chad Hasegawa, known primarily for his loose, figurative paintings of bears, went looser still with his letter "Z," a bold assembly of neon lines with clean edges that disintegrate into dripping paint. The show spoke to the symbiotic relationship between imagery and language and the interplay that exists in between.