“…Once your life is too stable, your creative dies.”
-Yoshitaka Amano
Post by Diego Manalili
Yoshitaka Amano has a wide variety of experiences as a character designer, fine art painter, Japanese artist, theater and scenic designer, costume designer, and animator. Notable for his contributions towards the Japanese animation industry, video games, graphic novels, and the fine arts of painting. His art style revolves around western comic books, Art Noveau, and Japanese woodblock prints according to his work website, “yoshitakaamano.com”.
AMANO’S BIOGRAPHY
Yoshitaka Amano was born on March 26, 1952, and somewhere near Shizuoka, Japan. At the age of fifteen, he moved to a company dormitory to work at Tatsunoko Productions, an animation studio. He created character designs for animation shows such as Gatchaman, Hutch the Honeybee, and Cashaan: Robot Hunter.
He left Tatsunoko Productions at the age of thirty in order to work on more independent projects. When he left the studio, his employers and co-workers were skeptical about his departure, because he was throwing away his financial stability. However, in response to this, he said,”…But once your life is too stable, your creative dies”.
AMANO’S WORKS
Fine Arts
Illustrations
Fine Arts
Illustrations
Character Design
Costume Design & Fashion
Animation
Deva-Loka
Warning: sexual nudity
AMANO’S ART STYLE
I have previously mentioned his art style had an influence from western comic books, Art Noveau, and Japanese woodblock print.
Art Noveau
Japanese Woodblock Print ukiyo-e
Western Comic Books
Art Noveau is an art style that focuses on more of a decorative and fine art aspect within designs.
Japanese Wood Block Prints utilized flat coloring and heavy lines.
Amano’s art style heavily focuses on a variety of fantasy and sci-fi as it can be seen in his works. In 2008 at an art gallery, Gallerie Michael Jansen in Berlin, Germany, Daniel Boese, a critic on the Artforum mentions how Amano was a “superflat concept”, not figuratively but litterally. Boese says Amano’s paintings had fused with “graphic design, pop culture, and the fine arts…”
Maryam Hoseini is an abstract artist on the rise. Her work consists of fluid imagery that exudes themes of discovery, identity, anxiety, and strength. Hoseini was born in Tehran, Iran in 1988. Her interest in art sparked at the age of 13, when she began taking an art class at school. Not only was she inspired by her teacher’s abilities, she was empowered by her teacher’s bravery to be such a strong woman in a place like Iran. Hoseini’s fascination in art grew as a teenager, as she quickly amassed hundreds of her own drawings. Her passion for art prompted her to major in Graphic Design at Sooreh Art University in Tehran. She earned her bachelors degree in 2012, which led her to move to the US to complete MFA programs from Bard College and the School of Art Institute of Chicago. She became a member of the Endjavi-Barbé Art Projects, a collective promoting Iranian contemporary artists, in 2013. She’s currently working out of a studio in Brooklyn.
As far as her art style goes, she primarily uses paint and pencil drawings to make pieces that represent her opinions of gender, sexuality, and politics. She often considers herself a drawer, not only because of her drawing roots, but because of her back and forth method of layering drawings and paintings.
Maryam Hoseini, Snake Charmers, 2013. Acrylic on cardboard. 51 x 41cm.
In her early artwork, Hoseini explored topics of humor and fear. Her love for dark humor stems from growing up watching comedy horror films from the 70s,80s, & 90s. While she was adopting macabre humor into her work, she was also dabbling in surrealism. She’s quoted saying, “The main idea of surrealism is what that attracts me the most. An attempt to create an idea beyond the reality that seems possible and actual.” She has successfully pushed beyond reality in her work, but recently she has been straying from surrealism, turning her focus towards abstractionism.
Maryam Hoseini, Black Milk, White Milk, 2013. Acrylic on Cardboard. 57 X 39 cm.
In an attempt to obscure the politics of identity, Hoseini began her shift in abstract art by cutting off the heads of her figures. Her older work was often driven by the presence of a face, so this shift marks a big change in her work style.
Maryam Hoseini, Princess and Princess in the Garden (Chapter 4), 2018, acrylic, ink and pencil on paper, mounted on panel, 24 x 18 inches (61 x 45.7 cm)Maryam Hoseini, Princess and Princess in the Garden (Chapter 7), 2018, acrylic, ink and pencil on paper, mounted on panel, 24 x 18 inches (61 x 45.7 cm)
Hoseini developed her Princess and Princess in the Garden series of pieces by conjuring an imaginary environment where women performed acts of violation and pleasure. Her emphasis on the human body, specifically female figures, explores her ideas about identity, gender, and sexuality. To Hoseini, the female body can represent power, vulnerability, anxiety, love, and inspiration. Ultimately, she sees herself in most of her work. Her use of fragmented body parts represents her experiences in life, especially as a female immigrant. She describes her bodies as having anxiety, but she’s transferring the anxiety to power and courage throughout her paintings.
Currently Hoseini is intrigued by how the space around a painting affects the way we view it. Her recent endeavors have involved painting gallery walls to enhance and extend her art, while attracting the viewer’s full attention one piece at a time.
