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Brooklyn-based graphic artist Toya Horuichi’s first solo exhibition came in Tokyo, and it was called “New York." From June 8th, for two weeks, his first American solo exhibition has been up in New York, and no, it isn't called “Tokyo” — but for as much as that parallelism may not be reflected in the title, it’s definitely reflected in the art. Showing at 484 Broome Street, Mountain Paintings presented an expansive showcase of just that: dozens of works Horuichi made using mountain imagery, some menacing, others obscure, and all interrogating the same brand of misty symbolism.

The show was presented by the new art app Arthur, and was organized by Paige Silveria. It’s on view in tandem with 'The Message is the Medium', another exhibition curated by Silveria and Rose Vickers. Below, please enjoy a brief Q&A with Horuichi about his work, this show, and what’s next on the horizon.

Not too long ago, you had your first exhibition, “New York,” in Tokyo. How much would you say you’ve grown since then?

I've grown or changed a lot. I think I was a designer who makes art but now I am an artist who does design too. Enjoying more to visually express my thoughts, ideas, characters, yet my personality.

What do mountains mean to you?

Self portrait, (childhood) memories, emotions, language without words, playground, a place gods live. And of course, Landscape.

The act of overlaying logos with anything is radical, let alone with the words “New York.” What are you trying to say when you do that?

I am trying to not say anything. I was looking for something very general and I think the word New York is like a public domain which means everybody can use it, in other words people can picture, imagine, feel something about NY when they see or hear the word New York. So I let them think about their New York story when they see my New York art works. My mission of making NY artworks is just to make them exist like ready-made.

With your work, does the idea come before the art, or does the art tend to be made before there’s a concept for it?

Both but I always try to equalize the idea and the art. I want to make art visually, physically, conceptually enjoyable.

Can you tell me about LQQK Studio? What has your time working with them been like?

LQQK studio is a Brooklyn based print operation studio that handles everything from silkscreen and multifaceted creative collective. They have amazing communities and I met so many great artists, designers, musicians, people through LQQK studio and now I can call them my friends. Moreover, more importantly I've learned how to do silkscreen printing as a professional. I can make art pieces with silkscreen by myself and by my hands.

A lot of the works featured in this show are hazy, or obscured to some extent. Can you take me into that decision? Is that just your preferred mode of operation, or is there something deeper behind it?

Unlike using brushes which paint very direct and specific, spray paint can paint wide and soft. I feel mountains in that way. I didn't try to paint the exact figure of the mountains. I tried to paint something abstract behind the mountains. I have a story from one of my collectors. She and her family are from New Mexico and her father was a professional rock climber. She told me her father died while rock climbing so when she sees paintings of mountains, she always feels devastated. However, she said my mountain painting is the first mountain artwork she really likes and one of the paintings went to her place. This is what I wanted to paint and I think I did it.

Is there ever a correct interpretation for your work? 

Surprisingly, I have gotten the correct interpretation from people so many times. A lot of people understand what I try to do even though my work is very varied.

You were raised in Japan, and now you’re living in Brooklyn. Do those two settings inform your work at all? If so, how?

I think so because I know one completely different culture, language, lifestyle, which is Japanese, than western/ American culture. It's like I can think of something in two ways. 

What was this show experience like? How did people receive it? 

This show just closed last Friday but it was great and everybody who came to the show seemed to enjoy it. People love the color palette and texture in the paintings. Also I made a mountain of sand which I used actual sand and people gave me really good compliments on the instaration/ sculpture. 

What’s up next for you?

I've been focusing on food figurative painting with oil paint. I want to talk about food throughout my work. Also keep making New York text artwork, self portrait series, egg drawings, some nonsense image prints with silkscreen and I am thinking of using clay to make some dish plates or maybe sculpture. Some collaborations are coming out this year too. It's a transition year so I'm just doing my best.

Auguries of Innocence premiered at Whaam Gallery in New York last week. On view from June 17 through July 24, the show features a body of work by Taiwanese artist Teng Yung Han, marking her first visit to America. An exploration of innocence, selfhood, and persona, the show is a beautiful depiction of a unique dreamscape existing inside Teng's head.

Inside the show, cries of “that’s so cute!” can be heard like clockwork, but the last and most resonant time I heard this cry came from someone outside it. Following the voice, I left the gallery and quickly stumbled upon the source of the reaction — a window display of adorable plushes, drawings, and figurines from the “Oriental Gift Shop” located within the same mini mall. Little animals and people with enormous bubbly eyes, pastel colors dominating the palette, an abundance of winking; the same products that cover this window have become ubiquitous to the Western eye. Precious cargo from East Asia, this style of imported cuteness is frequently donned by westerners as “kawaii” or “ke’ai” — the Japanese and Mandarin words which are often translated reductively into the english “cute.”

However, the relationship between Teng’s show and the "Oriental Gift Shop" isn’t one created exclusively through coincidental proximity — the two engage in a direct dialogue. Utilizing a similar visual language to the one found inside the shop, Teng interrogates her persona using the same style that in many ways has boxed her in, effectively translating her conflict between internal and external self into a material world that exists within the walls of Whaam Gallery.

The show is undoubtedly cute, but to only call it this is reductive in the same way that translating the highly complex “ke’ai” into simply “cute” is. An audience’s tendency to generalize is precisely what allows Teng’s show to thrive, so come for the cute, but challenge yourself to see through it to find the essence of Teng.

Over the weekend, I got to visit Ania Hobson in her cozy London studio. It’d been an eternity since I’d smelt the strong but radiant scent of drying paint—my nose burning as I was stunned by the slight headrush on arrival. Since our last encounter, Ania’s emotionally-charged red palette has taken shape in form of fiery fires, creating a searingly soulful and bold aural experience for her viewers.

These new works feature distinct tonality in their colors and an evergrowing sense of mystery conjured by gazing upon her subject’s emotionless faces. Inspired by British subcultures and comic books from her childhood, Ania’s work often directs her subject's gaze towards the outside of the frame, leaving a sense of secrecy within her viewers, forcing their imagination to speculate and wonder.

Now, debuting her first exhibition in LA, Ania has begun to slowly unveil what exists outside the frame: hands reaching in, the gaze becoming ever-so-centered, and a full image taking shape as the fires in her paintings kindle more than ever, radiating notions of self-healing and an unwavering spirit of empowerment.

In our conversation, we discussed her latest exhibition, art as a form of therapy, a profound love for coats, and much more.

Let’s start with your most recent exhibition in LA, “Playing with Fire”—tell me about the symbolism referenced behind the recurring motif of fires and flames in your work.

I picked “Playing With Fire” because I like looking at emotions as it is with my figures. It can also be something dangerous, romantic, angry, or even just deeply passionate. I think it says a lot about that being a survival thing for us. It’s comforting but also dangerous if it gets out of hand. It’s all those things I was looking at. The drawing there was called “Call Me Emotional”, and it was based on women being called crazy, and I wanted these ladies to be angry but very strong and powerful in themselves. It’s like an army marching toward the viewers.

Speaking about your work being very emotionally charged, would you say that informed your decision to shift to a dominantly red color palette?

The red definitely for me was an emotional thing for me that expressed what I was going through at the time—a really bad break-up. I was so angry and it felt horrible, but suddenly my paintings went red which was shocking, and at the same time, really beautiful too. It just did something to me and I really enjoyed it.

Some of your earlier paintings do feature the subtle red outline around the subjects too, so would you also say it also sparked around that time?

The background being more red was around the break-up, yes. In terms of the outlines being red, I think that might’ve started seven years ago, but it was more to reference blood, reminiscent of when you’d hold your hand up to the light and there’s that slight appearance of the red haze almost. It really made the figure pop out, but also add life to the paintings. So now, for me, the paintings aren’t alive yet or finished if the red outline isn’t present.

Now exhibiting more across the US, do you feel there’s been a difference in how your work is received over there, in comparison to the UK art scenes and its audience, acknowledging your work deals entirely with British society and the varying subcultures?

Erm… not really, no. I think more because a lot of my interest has always been in the US. In the UK, I’ve had the occasional group shows, but the majority of my collectors or galleries have always been from the US. Honestly, wouldn’t know why but I think because it’s quite bold or out there, maybe that’s why. A lot of people have told me they could see why the Americans might like it, maybe because of the style I think. As long as I’m painting and they’re being seen, then I’m happy.

And as you continue exhibiting, and evidently being more present in the US, do you see your work capturing images of life on that side of the pond?

I don’t think so, probably not. Obviously, when I went to LA I did the Joshua Tree National Park and I also love people-watching, so I was definitely inspired being there. The colors in LA also being so much beige and red, I felt like I could create so much while I was there. I really enjoyed my time there. I think anywhere that you travel, you will always come away with something, whether it’s a person, color, smell, or even being in that moment.

Sounds like we should expect a move over to LA at some point…

It’s funny because I could actually see myself being in LA, and people tell me it’s quite weird, but I really do love it there. It’s really great because you’ve got the desert for a few hours, and then we did the Sequoia, and then Malibu Beach for a day. It was so fun, and coming from the UK, it’s massive. The scale for me is something you just don’t get anywhere else. I also wondered what I could do in a painting with the desert, so that’s been playing in my mind a ton.

The last time we spoke, a lot of the subjects of your paintings still embodied the outlooking gaze to either side of the frame which you said comes from the inspiration from comic books and what happens in the next scene. With this recent exhibition, we’ve begun seeing a slight change with the subjects now having a more forward gaze, directly at the viewers or at themselves in the frame. What informed this change and how does it speak to the underpins behind your work?

The outward was to certainly draw attention to something going outside the painting. And now, as I’m starting to capture a lot of the social scene and themes along that line, a lot of the gaze is directed towards the viewer a lot more. One drawing I’m doing is called “social anxiety”, and we know that people who have that always feel like everyone is staring at them, but they’re really not. So it’s supposed to create this image of you walking into a bar, and now the subject is looking in your direction, essentially you becoming part of the conversation going on in the painting. I want the audience to engage with the painting beyond just viewing.

Noting the other colors also present in those paintings, besides the red, is each one representative of a different emotion, or are the colors acting in different forms to portray that one singular motif of emotion?

Yeah, I think color is so important. With the blue and yellow in this one, it’s a cool and calm feeling. And in the tunnel, there isn’t much going on so it’s a more relaxed scene happening in this painting at night. The dark blue car was also me wanting it to be kind of quiet within the painting.

Beyond attention to detail with the colors and tonality, is there any other facet of the art that you feel plays a seminal role in its creation?

Composition and coats actually. I just love doing coats. I love the shapes of them. They make me sort of play around with the paint and the movement of the paint. I can do certain brushmarks and I like the direction it's moving which would usually move in the way the coat would fall or where the falls would be. It adds so much depth to the painting. I also love shapes so much, like in a painting I did where her shoulders are really not anatomically correct, but I love how the coat just sat on her shoulders. I have so many coats, so when it comes summertime I’ve got nothing to wear, just coats and a lot of boots… that’s why I’ve got them all around the studio.

On composition, I also noticed you have the line tattoo going down your arm. Does that relate to your paintings in any way?

I love tattoos that are in line with the body. Bodies have such a nice shape and everything is so angular. I love the shapes you can create with the body, and I think it’s all about alignment and the way the body is structured. It’s just beautiful.

I also love that you reference other parts of pop culture like fashion in your work, and I’m curious if there are any other forms of pop culture or creative expression that you pull inspiration from like music, literature, film, or even performative arts?

When I listen to music, and for anyone really, you’re sort of put in a place. And for me, that’s a place of drawing… creating scenes and images in my head. I could also be sitting in a bar, and I’m such a people watcher, so I might spot someone walking a certain way and the light just hitting them perfectly. People also think I’m a bit weird because I love people-watching so much. I think I’m quite discreet so I guess I’ve never had any weird moments when I’m watching. I like music without lyrics a lot more, especially instrumental music, because it’s down to me or whoever to create their own story along with the song. I love jazz, rap, or really anything. It’s a little bit of everything. I’ve also just been really visual because I was born partially deaf, so as a kid I was always looking or lip-reading which is why the face became so important for me.

On finding therapy within your paintings—you being the artist reflecting her emotions onto the canvas, do they ever speak back to you and help you find resolution with your feelings? 

Yeah, I think it’s always been my go-to when I want to chill out, except when you’re trying to hit deadlines, then you’re panic painting. But certainly, I do find when I’m not painting much, I feel much different. Some days I could feel really stressed and anxious, and when I start painting it just totally disappears. It’s like meditation and it’s my world. I don’t know who the hell I would be without painting, it’s simply me.

Portland, Oregon-born and LA-based self-taught multimedia artist, Devon DeJardin is thrilled to present Giants, the artist's first solo gallery show in New York, on view from June 30 to August 5, 2022 at albertz benda. In Giants, DeJardin constructs a narrative from abstract forms that draws on the literary tradition of spiritual allegory to investigate and revitalize familiar myths. Inspired by his longtime study of spiritual traditions from around the world, DeJardin refers to his voluminous geometric subjects as ‘Guardians’: non-theological figures of guidance and protection.

In previous works, DeJardin’s Guardians were solitary figures, in dialogue only with the viewer. In Giants, DeJardin introduces a new dynamic between the Guardians, placing them in conversation with each other to elicit themes of introspection, growth, and resilience. DeJardin’s latest body of work not only explores narrative complexity, but also expands his artistic vocabulary. Ranging from intimate portraits to monumental tableaux, the exhibition culminates with a monumental bronze sculpture — the first that the artist has created at this scale. The evolution of his sculptural practice is reflected in his treatment of the paint on canvas. These new works feature an unparalleled depth of forms, rendered with a precision that at times belies the presence of an artist’s hand.

office sat down with the artist to discuss his upbringing as an artist, upcoming show, future projects, and more. 

What does the universe of Devon DeJardin look like right now? Could you paint a picture for me?

I'd say the past year has been focused on getting ready for this solo exhibition in New York. It was about a year and a half of work to develop these 10 paintings and two sculptures and it's been kind of all over-consuming. There was this kind of excitement, working towards this exhibition that I wanted to focus on, I wanted to put something out there that was gonna make a statement. So I kind of hunkered down for the past year and a half and kept a very rigid work schedule, Monday through Friday, about 10 hours of painting a day. I went through about 20 to 25 different works to come up with these final pieces. I wish I could say that my life has been this fun, super exciting traveling journey for the past year, but it's been focused on trying to make this show something that I'm proud of personally, but then also something that captivates the audience that comes in and sees it.

You’re a self-taught multimedia artist, which is incredible seeing as your work is quite remarkable. Could you recall your earliest memory of when you were propelled into the world of art? What made it stick with you?

I remember visiting my grandma, she’s a watercolorist, she never did much other than small group shows selling works for no more than a couple of hundred dollars. Though growing up as a kid, I remember going to spend time with her in Marblehead, Massachusetts. She had this unique print studio in the basement of her house, where she did all sorts of collage styles, works with watercolor, and mixed materials that she would find on the beach. It was just really kind of like opening the wardrobe and going into this different world down there.

I remember I was at the MFA in Boston, I went there when I was about 10 years old with my grandma. We were walking around and I remember seeing some gruesome, horrific paintings of these early medieval times like horses, pulling the limbs off of people. I was like whoa, I'm feeling something from this and it's grotesque and it's dark and it's not something that I wanna have my work portray. However, it was captivating to me because it showed me that through simple marks on a paper and simple gestures with paint you can evoke so much emotion through a canvas. So when I started to self-teach myself over the past couple of years, that idea of really trying to pour in energy and focus to create a piece of work that can emulate that feeling that I had as a child, I think is always on the forefront of my mind.

What is it about the work of artists such as Picasso, Duchamp, and Krasner that fuels your inspiration? Talk to me about some of the references that bleed into your designs.

I think it's very hard to kind of shy away from the fact that Picasso, the father of cubism and just an overall character sort to say. That has a strong influence on my work just because so much of my current body of work involves geometric forms to create these portrait-style images. With this show, a lot of my physical influences came from other artists, writers, and poets, there was a heavy lean on Goya and his color palettes and his understanding of light. Then diving into the title of the show called giants, coming from a book that Malcolm Gladwell wrote about these metaphorical giants that we face in everyday life. It also discusses the power of understanding that oftentimes as individuals we are viewed as the lesser to these giants, but in reality, we have such an advantage if we choose to lean in and dive into these symbols in our lives.

The overarching concept of your work seems to focus on the concept of guardians, what exactly does this mean to you and why is this important for you to explore as an artist?

Guardians to me, um, is based on the idea of non-theological protection and this kind of being that is placed in a household or this figure that's supposed to guide and help and serve and protect. I went to school to study world theology and get a better understanding of the major worldviews and perspectives that were out there. I feel like so much of people's studies when it comes to religion are what separates us. You believe something, I believe something. Now we're gonna put a wall between us because I think I'm right and you think you're right. But in reality, if we can step back and look at the common threads that tie us all together, we all need some sort of angel or protector that's there to help us get to this next step in life. These battles can be turmoil, pain, suffering, and loss, but at the same time, these guardians can be there to help celebrate these successes and these moments of joy in our life. So in short guardians, to me, are these non-theological symbols of protection that are meant to hold our hand as we walk through this journey of life.

First and foremost, congratulations on landing your first solo gallery show in New York! What themes did you try to highlight throughout? What kinds of dialogue do you hope to spark from those who visit?

So in all of my shows, this is a little bit more hidden for myself that I like to seed in there and hope that people will discover. There are four pieces in the show and I don't want to specifically name them, but they tell a four-chapter story about the idea of facing whatever it is in your life that you consider a giant. I'll say that the first painting starts with the title: ‘Things aren't always as big as they seem.’ It's an ode to the story of David and Goliath. So you have a giant figure on one side and you have a little figure on the other and they're facing each other where you can't tell if they're about to enter battle or if they're gonna have a stare-off or if they're gonna turn and go opposite ways. You'll see throughout the rest of the show, there are four pieces that you kind of see this figure getting bigger and they start to look equal to each other and then eventually they start moving towards each other and through each other. For me, it's that story of the moment we choose to face symbolic things in our lives that we know that we need to push through, but as we face them, we start to realize we were at an equal advantage and we can push through them into this metaphorical light.

Of the four chapters, how did you conceptualize your vision? How did you decide that you were gonna split it up into these four chapters? What is it about geometrical shapes that help you convey your stories?

Using geometrical shapes is part of a further vision of mine, one in which I also want to have a creative process. I think design elements when it comes to architectural sculpture, all different kinds of forms that are around us, they're made up primarily of shapes. So taking certain shapes from different things, such as buildings and houses and bridges or whatever it may be, and then using them to create paintings, I just think that allows much further exploration of the arts when you can base it off of things like these simple structures. Part of me all the time wants to just break out into these hyper-realistic paintings of people in landscapes. I'm sure at some point I'll explore it, but for right now it's just solidifying this base that I can build from in the future. You're gonna see two sculptural pieces that I've been working on, but it's this idea of taking these shapes from the canvas, seeing that they're almost coming off through the paintings, and then actually placing them into physical spaces.

How did you decide on the references that you were gonna use in your upcoming show?

For me, it started with one of the portraits and I was like, wow, I just kind of found out that I can push this to such a three-dimensional level. It was also during the time that the NFTs and the metaverse and all this digital stuff were booming. I thought it’d be cool to tap into this exploration that this world is having in this hyper-digital age. I thought to myself, what if we take these paintings that are kind of two-dimensional, flat, dark, and eerie and push them into this feeling that they could live in this future space. When I came to that idea, I was like, how do I tie something that's future and present, but then link it and anchor it in something that's from the past? That's where that Malcolm Gladwell's book came in because he references something that's from thousands of years ago, but he describes it in a present sense. Now you're looking at the work that could also look in a future tense. So it's trying to play on those three pillars.

The sculptures that you’ll be showcasing seem to be emblematic of your work, what did the process of melding this together look like? What ties into the rest of your pieces?

The sculptural process is something that I'm still learning, I'm being mentored and taught. I'm working alongside people that are far better than I am at sculpting and it’s a process that takes many hands. The process goes from taking an original sketch, making it into a painting and then I bring it into a 3D format on the computer and envisioning what these paintings would look like from all angles. For me, that's the tricky part because all of my paintings and portraits are kind of forward-facing. Then to take a side angle on the back angle and create balance within that, that's the most time-consuming part of it.

Once we have those 3D files, it's sent over to the foundry and we start to work on the wax molds and the printouts, and then slowly life starts coming together with the bronze and the welding and melding. I've always wanted my work to be able to be seen in all different kinds of settings and landscapes. Painting is limited to primarily being able to be indoors but I think there's so much power in this idea of what a guardian is. It should be able to be placed in all different areas. I just want to be able to have my work seen in all different types of environments. I think there's something really interesting about archeologists digging up these artifacts from the past. We find dinosaurs and these religious symbols and we try to put narratives to them. So I thought it would be cool to create what I thought were these guardian paintings that I've been working on.

Lastly, what can we expect to see from you in the upcoming months? Is there anything in particular that you’re looking forward to?

I'm doing a couple of pieces at the armory show in September, which has always been something that I've wanted to be involved with. I think it's a good experience and a good program. As far as the work, I'm gonna be further developing sculpture elements of my process. Then I'm trying to start conceptualizing and building this world around these portraits and these characters. It's kind of like you have the chapters, you have the characters, and now it's time to build that narrative around the characters to tell us a complete story, especially with this guardian body of work, which has been an extended body of work for multiple years now. I see it coming to life in so many different forms and I'm slowly unveiling these chapters that when people look back at it in a couple of years, you're gonna see all these different ways that they become connected as one. I find myself learning more every single day, but I've always kind of given myself credit for being a good storyteller. So I'm trying to bring this idea of storytelling into painting and people towards a much larger narrative. In the end, it's kind of a little mystery.

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