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Artist Ryu Ryu

Ryu
WORKS INTERVIEW EXHIBITIONS

INTERVIEWInterview

Ryu

Please tell us how you started drawing.

I've been drawing naturally since I can remember. In particular, the influence of my mother reading a lot of picture books when I was little may have been a big influence. For example, I loved Shaun Tan's picture book "Rules of Summer". It is a picture book depicting summer vacation from a child's point of view, and not only is the content interesting, but the illustrations drawn with oil pastels and oil paints are beautiful, and I was inspired to draw such a picture myself.

My creation began by taking copy paper from the printer at home and drawing imaginary creatures with lines.

「Lizard dance」 作：Ryu

Please tell us how you ended up attending an art school in the United States.

I had a strong desire to continue drawing and to study and expand my knowledge, so I decided to go into the field of art from junior high school. I moved to the United States shortly after I was born due to my parents' work and lived in Japan from 2019 to 2023, but now I am back in the United States, so I am attending the junior and senior high schools of arts and visual arts here.

Please tell us about your exhibition experience so far.

My first solo exhibition was during the Alchemist program I was enrolled in while living in Japan. The Alchemist Program is an educational program led by Panasonic's Creative Museum, AkeruE, and Akerue to foster a spirit of inquiry through manufacturing. I exhibited multiple works, including works depicting reptiles and animals that I like, and many people appreciated and purchased them.

The art school I currently attend also regularly holds events to present my work. For example, there was an on-campus auction event, and the other day I also exhibited it and won the bid. I plan to exhibit my own booth at a market event this winter. At exhibitions, I feel the joy of gaining new insights and broadening my horizons by receiving impressions of my works from people around me that I have never thought of. I think that if you accumulate such experiences inside and outside the university, you can learn what kind of people want what kind of paintings.

What are the core themes in your current production?

Although I am still in the process of exploring, what is in my mind right now is to depict the social and environmental noise that modern children feel. Today, technological innovation such as AI has progressed and it has become a convenient era, but I feel that it is not all good. For example, our generation uses social media as a matter of course, but many of us feel stressed and pressured by notifications that don't stop ringing all the time.

Yearning for the arrival of spring is a work that depicts just that. It depicts a Japanese macaque child in a snowy mountain wearing headphones and enduring a snowstorm with strength.

「Yearning for the arrival of spring」 作：Ryu

Please tell us your favorite art materials.

Yearning for the arrival of spring uses rock paint and gold leaf, which are the materials of Japanese painting, and uses the canvas as a support. I once participated in a workshop in Japan where I made my own rock paint and painted flowers, and since then I have been obsessed with the charm of rock paint.

Oil pastel is also one of my favorite art materials. I feel that the feeling of using pastel oil is similar to rock paint. I'm the type of person who plans in advance and adds color to it more precisely rather than painting boldly and flashily, so I think rock paints and oil pastels suit me.

Do you often use animals as motifs? Also, please tell us about your future prospects

Yes, I like to draw nature and animals. I spent three months working on a work called "Curiosity" about a tiger, and I personally like it very much. It is a picture of a tiger trying to lick a mysterious object that he happens to find in the forest with his tongue out of curiosity and curiosity. The tiger's tongue is spiky, so I drew the thorns like a pointillism. The forest in the background is also drawn using layers of different colors.

It loves not only mammals but also reptiles, especially lizards, and often uses them as motifs. When I visited a reptile café, I asked the clerk to draw the iguana while observing it. On the other hand, I also like to create and draw fantasy creatures.

As for the future, I haven't completely decided on my style or what I want to draw yet, so my immediate goal is to establish them while refining my skills. I also want to create many opportunities to talk about art and works with artists of all ages. I think that if the artist himself cannot talk about his work well, it will not be conveyed to the viewer, so dialogue is necessary for that. I would like to continue to actively challenge a wide variety of exhibitions and events, and have opportunities for dialogue to sublimate my own works.

「Curiosity」 作：Ryu

Inspired by picture books, Ryu has been creating for as long as he can remember. At just 15 years old, he has a clear theme of social noise that modern children feel, and expresses it through animal motifs. He has a spirit of exploration and skill at a young age, such as carefully layering colors with rock paint and oil pastels, and painting the spikes of a tiger's tongue over three months. Expectations are high for Ryu's future growth as he seeks to establish his own style through dialogue with artists of all ages.