Made the trip to Ginza on Tuesday. I got off the wrong station so I had a bit of a hike to the gallery but it was a nice day so I wasn't complaining. Found the gallery pretty easily and, since no one else was there, got to take it all in pretty much by myself. Ahh, the benefits of not having a real job.Anyway, the gallery isn't all that big but it's a nice clean and open space. There were about 60 pieces in total, all in nice frames and sized at around B4. They were lined up tight together in 2 parallel rows across all 4 walls. All pieces were priced at 105,000 yen which is equal to about a grand US or Canadian. A steal if you ask me. Oh, not all. A handful were not for sale. I went on the second day and a third were already taken so I'm sure by the end of the week they'll all be spoken for. I was tempted to purchase one but the subject matter was, well, not exactly user-friendly? I woulda jumped at the chance if any were from either his Blade or Ohikkoshi works. I was hoping they would have prints or some light items like that but nadda. They had the artbook though.
I'm pretty miminal in terms of mediums I use so seeing an entire gallery filled to the brim with nothing but pencil drawings was something quite special to me. I've had the fortune of seeing original pages from various artists over the last year but this stuff took detail and subtlety to the next level. Reproductions rarely do the actual work justice and this was an example, case and point. It's quite something seeing erased lines covered with the final strokes and the problem solving process all right there happening in front of my face. The faces were so crisp and figures so well defined. The work was B4 sized, yes, but they came across much much bigger. Pretty outstanding. I wish I could describe it better to you but there's just no way I'm afraid. I'm getting too emotional about this so I'll stop...
All I know is, I'll definitely be making another trip before the show ends.
TAK
posted by TAK at 7:05 PM
6 Comment(s):
You lucky lucky SOB. I dont blame you for getting fanboy about this.
Too bad they didnt have any of his inks, but he probably has his assistants do that right?
Man, i would just kill to see that gallery.
I would've loved to have seen the original pencil works. They would definitely speak volumes of the man's process as he creates...
Sir, I am so envious of you right now you do not even know!
*cries a river*
Do you mean they're selling the original pencil drawings? It would be a steal if it's a grand US$. I simply love his sketchy style of artworks.
andre - not sure what amount of inks on his pages are his. I'd guess any figural work would be inked by the main artist. Pencils were fine with me tho.
fc - yeah, the originals. A grand is definitely a steal. The subject matter... not so much.
I'm guessing the show had art that was in a similar vein with his artbook?
That's some scary shit. I have to admit, as much as I would kill to see the show, part of me is glad I can't because I can't look at that stuff! Tu showed me one piece from the art book and it's still BURNED in my memory.
I think the other thing that scares me about it is how detailed and serious it is. Like, not only is he thinking all this up, but he's also spending hours staring at it as he draws it all and it make me wonder if he relishes in it like he's living out a fantasy?
All I'm saying is that being a woman, looking at his non blade work, really makes me scared of him.
I wonder if his art was cheaper than expected cause of the subject matter.