On Saturday, November 18th, downtown Los Angeles’ Corey Helford Gallery (CHG) will proudly unveil an all-new series of works from Japanese painter Hikari Shimoda, titled Questions for Living in the World, in the Main Gallery.
Shimoda arrived onto the international scene in 2014 with her U.S. exhibition Fantastic Planet, Goodbye Man at CHG, introducing her ongoing series since 2011, titled “Children of This Planet” and “Whereabouts of God,” and since then she’s become one of the most widely recognized names of New Contemporary painters rising out of Japan. Sparkling and sweet, Shimoda’s work is at once enchanting and disarming, portraying a world where cuteness and horror coexist. Regarding her new works, Shimoda shares, “I continue to create works using the theme of how we live in this world of sorrow, loneliness, and salvation. This time, by juxtaposing the themes that I’ve created so far, I would like to create an exhibition that cross-cuts and expresses people living in the present age.”
Regarding her ongoing “Whereabouts of God” series featured in the upcoming show (some pieces seen above, titled “God is Dead, But…”), Shimoda says: “‘God is dead’ are the words of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Denial of clinging to fiction, affirmation of nothingness. Denying God and living in reality is always accompanied by anxiety. Keep asking what the truth is and keep looking…it’s a painful task that requires a huge amount of energy. My series conceptually depicts the mental image of a person seeking the truth and the challenges that brings. In some of the paintings you’ll see a scar on the neck of the young boys, which looks like light coming through and this is meant to express the idea that things become clearer over time.”
Open to the public and free of charge, Questions for Living in the World is set to debut on Saturday, November 18th from 7:00 pm – 11:00 pm in CHG’s Main Gallery, alongside a solo show by Josie Morway, titled Course of Empire, in Gallery 2. Both shows will be on view through December 23rd.
About Hikari Shimoda:
Based in Nagano, Japan, Hikari Shimoda first studied illustration at the prestigious Kyoto Saga University of Art and Aoyama Juku School before beginning her career as a contemporary artist in 2008. Soon afterward, Shimoda was selected for her first solo exhibition at Motto Gallery in Tokyo, and since then has held exhibitions annually in galleries worldwide, spanning Japan, the United States, Canada, and Milano, Italy. Shimoda’s artwork paints a world where cuteness and horror coexist, and fantasy meets reality. She credits the Japanese pop culture she grew up with as the main source of inspiration of her Lowbrow-Irasuto style, inspired by anime and manga.
There are often children putting on heroic costumes such as Superman and Shojo girls, an anime sub-genre of young girls who use magic. Through depicting children especially, Shimoda reveals the problems people in today’s socety struggle with from within. Children possess a simple existence because their identity is ambiguous which provides her with an original point of view. In her “Whereabouts of God” portrait series of other worldly horned children, she also comments on Christianity’s anointment of Jesus Christ as savior of humanity and mirror of our fantasy heroes. These characters not only represent heroism but an adult desire to watch our children grow and defend the world we have constructed. With each new piece, Shimoda advances her search for salvation and her deeper understanding of this chaotic world.
