Image courtesy of Teppei Kaneuji

I think the most interesting artwork I saw while in Japan was from Teppei Kaneuji. I just happened to bump into his work while looking through different artist books. As a rule, I am not a big fan of sculpture. Many contemporary sculptors seem to demonstrate that they can put things together in different ways…which is not always aesthetically pleasing or good. Kaneuji is an exception. If you look at his work, he has experimented with different styles and themes over the years. Much of it uses found objects and mixed media. I was surprised at how much of it was visually appealing to me. My favorite was the work that is shown above. He did many of these “monster” sculptures. The idea is based on what he would see when watching young people dancing at a rock concert. It was a sea of jumping and energy. I think he has captured that visual style perfectly. Plus, I like how it is in the form of a figure. It only adds to how a sea of people can seem like a being by itself. I think the work of Kaneuji could also be worked into my art curriculum. I think children like to play different materials and see what they can create. Unfortunately, it seems to just end up being a bunch of stuff glued together. Kaneuji is able to use found objects in a way that is completely striking.

Image courtesy of Hiroe Saeki

I am not actually sure why Hiroe Saeki is considered Micropop, but his work was amazing. The detail on the images is striking. In some areas of the work above, Saeki used tiny circles to fill in the different sections. They were TINY. Each circle was smashed right up to the next. It looks like each circle was meticulously drawn. It makes the whole work more delicate. I also love his use of negative space. The image itself is excellent, but the space to the left brings it all together to me. Her work would be a great way to explain negative space to my students and how it can be effective. To see more work, look here.