Rooted both in a contemporary Japanese aesthetic and in the traditional painting style of Nihonga, Hiroshi Sugito (b. 1970) makes paintings that elude both categories. Sugito's style is not glossy and S
uper flat as many of the
Tokyo-pop artists, who draw their inspiration from manga comics and animé films. There is something more delicate to Sugito's painting. The childlike primitivism in fairy tale colors and dreamy motives shows a different side of the present art scene in Japan. Using delicate layers of acrylic and dry pigment, the artist begins with an ambiguous painted space into which figurative elements are introduced. A recurring motive in Sugito's work is the stage curtain, where a fantasy world opens up and illustrates Sugito's dreamy and imaginative universe.
