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Ogi '# 13', 2006
Cutout, Acrylic, Gouache, Ink, Graphite on Paper.
30.8 x 31cm approx.
Ryuichi Ogino was born in Tokyo in 1978. He grew up surrounded by Japan's pop culture (anime / manga such as Gundam and Nausicaa, video games like Final Fantasy series, and all kinds of related merchandises, as well as; mostly imported from the US, fashion and music). Most notably, snowboarding, a trend well packaged and marketed as an alternative lifestyle, made a huge impact on Ogino, that it became his primary reason to go study in Colorado after finishing high-school in Japan.
Ogino attended a language school, then a college in Denver, CO. Then he moved to Oakland, CA to study at CCA (California College of the Arts). He graduated CCA majoring in Illustration in 2004, though around this time, he began to question the gap between the fine art and commercial illustration. His examination, along with the shift in his thought process - from seeking originality elsewhere to produce something new to finding original voice through introspection - led him to realize that his passion is not in illustrating.
Upon his return to Tokyo in 2005, he quickly began to see hyper-consumerism and its lack of context within as two major issues among Japan's contemporary youth culture. And to counter those issues, he started to create art works that are based on his concept; "Out of the Context Mash-up," a concept inspired by Mash-up music. For instance, Ogino has been presenting triptych paintings in which each three panels represents different context of visual communications such as minimalism, pop culture, and decorative pattern. By intentionally placing different context right next to each other, Ogino tries to bring contrast between those contexts, asking viewers to reexamine them.
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