Ushio Shinohara

          Ushio Shinohara (born 1932, Tokyo), nicknamed “Gyu-chan”, is a Japanese Neo-Dadaist artist. His excited, bright, oversized work has exhibited at prestigious institutions internationally, including the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the Guggenheim Museum Soho, New York; the Japan Society, New York; The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; Leo Castelli Gallery, New York; Galerie Oko, Berlin; The Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles; and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Seoul, among others.

          A photographer named Tomatsu Shomei was one of his strongest influences on his art. Tomatsu Shomei was a Japanese photographer who studied at school called Aichi University. He took photos for Japanese photography magazines that were controversial and showed what was happening in the now. He is a photographer that is still celebrated in the Japanese culture and still works today. Shomei, the Japanese photographer, brought Japanese fears to life with the photos he took many of them taken after the Second World War.

          Shinohara demonstrates the same high-energy approach in every medium he employs. His sculptures, paintings, drawings, and sculptures depicting unique representations of everyday scenes from the eclectic urban landscape of New York City and the beaches of Bermuda and Miami. Working primarily in acrylic gouache and colored ink, with some collage elements, Shinohara’s cartoon-like compositions are infused with primary colors, a humorous spirit, and a violent painterly touch. The complexity of movement and impulsive nature that characterize Shinohara’s visual language reflect his unyielding creative energy.

          What should be admired about Shinohara is his work ethic and raw passion for creating art. He lives and breathes art making by either creating cardboard sculptures or with his style of action painting where he uses boxing gloves with sponges on them covered in paint to beat the paint onto the canvas. Much like Pollock Ushio uses the full motion of his body to create these works.