SELFY: Perfect Edition | Masato Yamaguchi Solo Exhibition Introduction

CUPPAER SPACE is pleased to announce that Masato Yamaguchi's solo exhibition "SELFY: Perfect Edition" will be held in collaboration with SH GALLERY on August 26, 2022.

"SELFY: Perfect Edition" contains a total of 24 works. This exhibition will be Yamaguchi's first solo exhibition in Asia. We will present you with Yamaguchi's self-portrait series on social media since 2020. The 17 paintings in SELFY", as well as some of the freely created works by artists will be the content of this exhibition.

Masato Yamaguchi was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1980. He started working as a graphic designer under the influence of the 'Shibuya-style graffiti' movement popular in Tokyo in the 1990s, after which he debuted as an artist.

A girl holding a smartphone and tilting her head to look at the camera, or combining filters to create a close-up of her face in a cute atmosphere, is reminiscent of the different but extremely unified web photos that are flooded on social networks. All the women in Yamaguchi’s paintings feel as if you’re traversing the line between the real and the virtual, as if you’ve met the people in the painting somewhere.

*Dogenzaka,Shibuya,Tokyo,Japan GR, 2022/布面丙烯/128x160cm

As we have seen, the figures of young women appearing on social media with the same formulaic posture are, for Yamaguchi, a microcosm that reflects the existence of this era. Even if there are no specific characters or characters that the audience is familiar with, viewers can still involuntarily associate themselves or the people around them. There is a symbol of the era when Andy Warhol painted Marilyn Monroe in the past, and it can be said that it depicts what modern Asia imagined by people who transcend countries, languages, and even cultural backgrounds, and who are ambiguously shared. People all over the world are constantly connected on the Internet, to cross the boundaries between modern, real and virtual, and even to think, sometimes what is displayed on the monitor may be closer to reality than everything in front of them. Through his work, Masato Yamaguchi delicately captures everything you are sure to feel familiar with.

Kutsuna Miwa, a contemporary art historian, commented, "People cry over messages from far-flung chat apps, complacent over intricately adjusted selfies, and wildly unrealistic fascination with virtual idols. They are so common in our daily lives that it is difficult to call them fictional works. Yamaguchi, in the context of this trend, created works with the theme of "trans-reality" (reality beyond the reality), thereby continue to question reality."

On the trainJY20, 2022/布面丙烯/128x160cm*

Exhibition Details

• SELFY: Perfect Edition | Masato Yamaguchi Solo Exhibition
• Date: 27 Aug - 29 Sep 2022
• Time: 10:00-18:00
• Venue: Cuppar Space
• Address: Workshop 1, 1/F, Hundsun International Center, 44 Heung Yip Rd,Hong Kong

Information Source: Cuppar Auction's official website