Takako Konishi
Bio: Takako Konishi
African American artist Takako Konishi (pseudonym, birth name: Keith Brown1969) constructs collages that pay homage yet break with the traditional collage aesthetic. He describes his process as painting with images. Utilizing digital technology along with traditional methods he cuts, pastes, blends and mixes imagery, creating multi layered mashup compositions that burst with sexuality, anger, beauty and obsession. “Imagery makes the best paint; it’s comes dripping with color and connotations.” (Takako Konishi)
Born and raised in Chicago, Takako has always appreciated existing between different cultures, classes, environments and neighborhoods. He attributes growing up in a large multicultural city as a big factor in what made him appreciate the beauty in the contrast of differences.
Formally trained as an architect (currently practicing in Chicago) Takako was heavily influenced by his time in graduate school at the University of Cincinnati’s school of Design architecture art and planning (2004-2007.) The school had a dynamic mixture of disciplines and students interacting within the same building. He fondly recalls attending lectures and critiques on Fashion, Art, industrial design and Architecture. It was during this time Takako became interested in collage.
His first experiments with collage occurred while doing research for his thesis (Culture, conflict and the Phenomena of Appropriated Space.) Here he employed collage as the underlying framework to organize the thesis document, installations and final proposals. This research proved to be critical in shaping his artistic philosophies. “The bi product of subculture generates rich material for art.” (Takako Konishi)
Takako’s collage making process, emulates the environments many of us experience daily. We constantly go back and forth between our real environment and our perceived environment as filtered through our devices. His art strives to reside somewhere in between this tension of the simulated and the real. Often starting in the digital environment, he’ll make physical prints, collage them, photograph them and convert them back to digital. This back-and-forth process usually happens multiple times on any given piece, eventually blurring and adding a layered depth to the two-dimensional work.
There are a few themes that have become apparent in his work. He has developed a fascination for the myriad of subcultures we all simultaneously exist in, each one playing a role in shaping our identity. His art tries to reflect and exaggerate this phenomenon, playfully giving form to these invisible selves.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
Daily life is so strange and image rich as we are completely immersed in our all-encompassing social media culture. Modern media through its various forms and devices has grown into a behemoth, producing streams of imagery and content competing for our attention, often with messages that define our attitudes, beliefs, and social values. On this premise I propose that content creation is equivalent to a new religion, and our hosting platforms are the new temples.
However, my art is not a negative critique of our mediated culture, I seek to explore and appropriate this data rich environment as raw material to create an art that has tension yet familiarity. Using collage, I explore the subject, aesthetic, pace and ultimately sense of place we are creating through the many artifices of mass social media.
My art is a diary, a daily confessional of a present-day content consumer.
Bio: Takako Konishi
African American artist Takako Konishi (pseudonym, birth name: Keith Brown1969) constructs collages that pay homage yet break with the traditional collage aesthetic. He describes his process as painting with images. Utilizing digital technology along with traditional methods he cuts, pastes, blends and mixes imagery, creating multi layered mashup compositions that burst with sexuality, anger, beauty and obsession. “Imagery makes the best paint; it’s comes dripping with color and connotations.” (Takako Konishi)
Born and raised in Chicago, Takako has always appreciated existing between different cultures, classes, environments and neighborhoods. He attributes growing up in a large multicultural city as a big factor in what made him appreciate the beauty in the contrast of differences.
Formally trained as an architect (currently practicing in Chicago) Takako was heavily influenced by his time in graduate school at the University of Cincinnati’s school of Design architecture art and planning (2004-2007.) The school had a dynamic mixture of disciplines and students interacting within the same building. He fondly recalls attending lectures and critiques on Fashion, Art, industrial design and Architecture. It was during this time Takako became interested in collage.
His first experiments with collage occurred while doing research for his thesis (Culture, conflict and the Phenomena of Appropriated Space.) Here he employed collage as the underlying framework to organize the thesis document, installations and final proposals. This research proved to be critical in shaping his artistic philosophies. “The bi product of subculture generates rich material for art.” (Takako Konishi)
Takako’s collage making process, emulates the environments many of us experience daily. We constantly go back and forth between our real environment and our perceived environment as filtered through our devices. His art strives to reside somewhere in between this tension of the simulated and the real. Often starting in the digital environment, he’ll make physical prints, collage them, photograph them and convert them back to digital. This back-and-forth process usually happens multiple times on any given piece, eventually blurring and adding a layered depth to the two-dimensional work.
There are a few themes that have become apparent in his work. He has developed a fascination for the myriad of subcultures we all simultaneously exist in, each one playing a role in shaping our identity. His art tries to reflect and exaggerate this phenomenon, playfully giving form to these invisible selves.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
Daily life is so strange and image rich as we are completely immersed in our all-encompassing social media culture. Modern media through its various forms and devices has grown into a behemoth, producing streams of imagery and content competing for our attention, often with messages that define our attitudes, beliefs, and social values. On this premise I propose that content creation is equivalent to a new religion, and our hosting platforms are the new temples.
However, my art is not a negative critique of our mediated culture, I seek to explore and appropriate this data rich environment as raw material to create an art that has tension yet familiarity. Using collage, I explore the subject, aesthetic, pace and ultimately sense of place we are creating through the many artifices of mass social media.
My art is a diary, a daily confessional of a present-day content consumer.
$2,080.00
Digital collage on metal (framed).
36x24"
Limited edition 1 of 10.
$3,470.00
Digital collage on wood board (framed).
36.75x24.75"
Limited edition 1 of 10.
There is beauty in contradiction, a primary tenant of collage. Creativity is often born from friction, In the book, “Scope of Total Architecture” by Walter Gropius the architect shares a story of how scientists discovered that cells in a perfect environment often die. It’s when something vital is taken away that cells react and begin to fight for life. It is the fight for life that makes them thrive and even multiply. This is the conversation that VSWADE is born out of.
$4,855.00
Digital collage on wood board (framed).
46x38"
Limited edition 1 of 3.
$2,500.00
Digital collage on wood board (framed).
36.75x24.75"
Limited edition 1 of 10.
How we choose to cover our bodies is one of the most intimate acts we engage in as humans. Fashion is about more than merely what we wear, it is about who we want to be. What we want to hide. Who do we belong to? What power do we possess? Here the dress takes on a mythological prowess as it wraps the femme fatale as if on fire, flickering about displaying her inner desires like an infomercial.
$2,080.00
Digital collage on metal (framed).
18.75x24.75"
Limited edition 2 of 10.
Inspiration is mysterious and unpredictable; you never know when it will show up.
At a recent show, my aunt asked, why she, a black woman, isn't represented in my work more?
I understand this yearning, we all want to see ourselves represented, especially in things we consider beautiful. This is a response to that yearning, that accusation, the desire to be seen in the light of beauty. The desire to have power. And that's all it took, I felt that familiar wave of excitement as inspiration reared its head, found hiding in this simple sentence, where am I?
$1,665.00
Digital collage on wood board (framed).
18.75x24.75"
Limited edition 2 of 10.
I'm particularly interested in how celebrity and consumer culture have merged and evolved, creating a type of modern-day mythology. The Red dress is vital in this phenomenon, think about Cinema, often the woman in Red is the one you need to pay attention to. She embodies notions of danger and adventure. She is the sultry temptress, the villain and the hero, the devil, and the goddess. The red dress is often used to communicate characteristics about an important female character, as if she were wrapped in cloaks of cultural connotation that we could readily read, I appreciate this because it is a wordless shared visual communication, one that resonates with the masses.
$3,885.00
Chromalux print on treated wood substrate (framed).
42.75x30.75"
Limited edition 1 of 10.
Los Mirada: The stare. I wanted to create a piece that explores the male gaze. Here the dress reacts to the gaze as if it were a powerful gust of wind, as the viewer imagines what’s revealing, hiding, and imagined under the red cloak.
$4,855.00
Chromalux print on metal substrate (framed).
38x46"
Limited edition 2 of 3.
"The red dress" series seeks to explore, dissect, exaggerate and celebrate various aspects of American popular culture. I'm particularly interested in how celebrity and consumer culture have merged and evolved, creating a type of mythology. The Red dress in particular speaks to this. Think about Cinema, often the woman in Red is the one you need to pay attention to. She embodies notions of danger and adventure. She is the sultry temptress, the villan and the heroe, the devil and the goddess.
$6,240.00
Chromalux print on metal substrate (framed).
50x41"
Limited edition 1 of 3.
Olympia is an exploration in audacity. Many versions have been painted by various artists throughout history, each in their own way grappling with evolving ideas of women's position in society. Wealth, autonomy, sensuality, and promiscuity are a few aspects that have been present in past works. Ripe for conversation in this latest addition are contemporary notions of fame, opulence, status and self-promotion, adding to the ongoing dialogue surrounding the Audacious femme fatale,
$1,940.00
Chromalux print on treated wood substrate (framed).
16.75x20.75"
Limited edition 3 of 10.
This series seeks to explore the act of projection in art. Art interpretation is a kind of projection, often, what we see in a work reveals something about ourselves. The relationship between the observed object and the observer is symbiotic. In these pieces I seek to allow more room for the observer to attach and hang meaning onto the piece, to project themselves as if as if it were a metaphorical manikin.
$2,500.00
Chromaluxe print on treated wood substrate (framed).
18.75x48.75x2"
Limited edition 5 of 10.
Inspired after returning from a trip To New Orleans, I wanted to create a piece that captured the epiphany I had while walking through the French Quarter one evening. It was the violet hour, so I strayed off the busy streets to take in the moody atmosphere. She caught my eye as we crossed. Was that? I wondered, it was her alright, Durga, on that wild cobble stoned street.