Enrico Isamu Oyama
Rock Show, Sick I Go
July 15 – September 10, 2022
THE GALLERY is pleased to announce Rock Show, Sick I Go, an exhibition of multimedia works by Enrico Isamu Oyama. Oyama, who is based in New York City and Tokyo, has been creating visual art influenced by street aerosol writing of the 1970’s to 80’s in New York and beyond.
He has been presenting his iconic motif known as Quick Turn Structure (QTS) across the borders of various mediums, and worked actively on collaborative projects such as COMME des GARÇONS for their Spring / Summer 2012 collection and Yokozuna Terunofuji’s Kesho Mawashi (large decorative apron for Sumo wrestler) at the New Year Grand Sumo Tournament in January 2022. This exhibition at THE GALLERY would be his latest one with the team led by the owner and chef, Hiroki Odo.
Oyama’s new works include a mural on outdoor dinning tent and a wall installation of “wild posting”, a method of commercial street advertising commonly seen on the street walls in NYC. “Together with street aerosol writing, they often generate a complex and layered visual tapestry in an urban landscape” says Oyama.
The project also references Japanese history and culture, Raku-sho and Seki-ga from the medieval Japanese Edo period. “Raku-sho, whose literal translation is dropped writing, is a form of political satire that criticizes the authorities and was usually written on a paper and dropped or thrown on the streets anonymously. Seki-ga, whose literal translation is seat painting, is a form of impromptu painting performance that was often done as entertainment in front of guests and patrons at a drinking party. Both Raku-sho and Seki-ga had an affinity with townspeople culture in Edo, in which the street spirit of the time was embedded” explains Oyama.
Oyama believes that Raku-sho is a precedent of street art from Japan, while Seki-ga is connected to entertainments at dinner events or parties. The exhibition title combines these two references together. “The association here is not very academic” says Oyama. “But our aim is to play around and recontextualize these ideas and forms to expand the imaginative cultural sphere. The playfulness is, as some of you may have already realized, best expressed in the project title Rock Show, Sick I Go, which stands for nothing by itself, but a punning for Raku-sho and Seki-ga.”
A special culinary menu helmed by Hiroki Odo and his team dishes on the opening night, live painting performance will be conducted by Oyama along with special dishes by Odo. 粋”(iki), this is not a typical nostalgia to the past. will feature two iconic Chef Odo, whose extensive experience with kaiseki cuisine, from the Edo era; Unagi and Soba. However, reinterprets the essence of “ the zeitgeist of Edo, in contemporary framework and creates a sophisticated appearance of simplicity, while taking a bite will simply show how complex and carefully crafted the flavor and textures are. In Chef Odo’s words, it is his “Kodawari”, or his pursuit, dedication, and commitment to his craft with everything he creates. With anything Chef Odo prepares, there is always a kaiseki-style depth and character.
About the Artist
Enrico Isamu Oyama
Enrico Isamu Oyama (b. 1983, Italian / Japanese) creates visual art in various mediums that features Quick Turn Structure; the motif composed of spontaneous repetition and expansion of free-flowing lines informed by aerosol writing of 1970’s-80’s New York and beyond.
Oyama was born in Tokyo to an Italian father of Bavarian descent and a Japanese mother. While growing up there, the family had visited Veneto region in North Italy every summer for more than 2 decades. Going back and forth experiencing Tokyo as megalopolis and North Italy as quiet countryside trained him to view the world from different angles.
Oyama became interested in aerosol writing around the time he lived in Veneto in 2000-01. After returning to Tokyo, he started drawing a line pattern in black and white with three-dimensional depth. Oyama established it as his style in Tokyo underground art scene through early to mid 2000's.
After attending MFA at Tokyo University of the Arts in 2007-09, he named the motif Quick Turn Structure, and has positioned his practice in the midst of contemporary art and street culture. Oyama stayed in New York for 6 months in 2011-2012 as a grantee of Asian Cultural Council. Since then, he lives and works in Brooklyn and Tokyo. Oyama held solo exhibitions internationally at institutions including Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation (London), Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art (Kansas), Pola Museum of Art (Hakone), Nakamura Keith Haring Collection (Yamanashi), Tower 49 Gallery (New York) and Kanagawa Prefectural Gallery (Yokohama).
His first book Against Literacy: On Graffiti Culture was published by LIXIL Publishing in 2015. In 2020, he has authored 3 books; The Real Faces of Street Art: New York Writing Culture (Seido-Sha Publishing), The Art of Streets: From Twombly to Banksy (Kodansha Sensho Metier), The Semantics of Aerosol: The thoughts and Arts of Post-Pandemic – A Dialogue with Tetsuo Kogawa (Seido-Sha Publishing).
Oyama edited the special issue on aerosol writing for renowned Japanese art magazine Bijutsu Techo, and undertook collaboration with brands such as Comme des Garçons , Shu Uemura and Audi. Since 2020, Oyama works in 2 studios in New York and Tokyo back and forth.