Background of my imagination

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Koji Ishikawa (b. 1968) is a Japanese contemporary artist based in Los Angeles, USA who mainly uses symbolic conical shapes as the main subject of his expression to create a dynamic, inter-dimensional experience that explores the power of human creativity and leads the audience into subspace. The color expression is monochrome, but he also creates detailed differences in the black color scheme.  I pursue the possibilities of various pictorial expressions by developing and extending images with an emphasis on how to become a heterogeneous expression.

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When I was eight years old, a series of illustrated books purchased by my parents arrived at our house.
As it was a time when I was interested in everything, the 30 or so illustrated books were a door to knowledge that would expand my world at that time.

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Among them, I was particularly attracted to the works of Italian Artist “De Chirico” in the illustrated art books. Two human-like forms are standing close together against a geometric background. The metaphysical human body is composed of geometrical forms. My first encounter with an “artistic work” was when I saw a photograph of this strange painting, which was a transfer of forms from the natural world.

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Then I began to develop an interest in having inter-dimensional (metaphysical) fantasies. As a child, I was not interested in ready-made toys, I liked to make things that came into my mind with clay.

Doing something predetermined didn't really interest me. I think my exploration of creating began around this time.

Many of the works I created at art university were works that moved back and forth between abstraction and figurativeness. Among Japanese art, I was interested in the artworks of the “Gutai Art Association,” and thought that the free expression that inspired various images and imaginations suited me.

Otherwise, I was attracted to the bold, free-spirited, and powerful expression of Japanese Artist “Shiko Munakata".
When I actually went to Aomori and saw "Nebuta Festival", I felt firsthand that the roots of Japanese culture were still alive in the northernmost part of Japan's main island, and I became aware of the identity of his works, and became even more deeply interested in ethnicity, thought, history, culture, mythology, science, and so on.

Just before graduating from University of Art, I won the grand prize in a competition juried by Japanese Artist “Sadamasa Motonaga”, who was an artist with the Gutai Art Association.
The work was rough, not at all pretty or beautiful, neither was it technically good, but I thought I had done my best to express myself.

From that point on, the one thing I never want to lose in my work is this thing that the edge image.

Although it is not something that can be described in concrete terms, it was important to give the work a sense of “existence,” so I focused on creating the work with as few extraneous elements as possible in terms of color and shape.

It was easier to depict a heterogeneous space in the painting, which is a flat surface, if the basic shapes were minimal.

I always tried to incorporate a composition that was also conscious of guiding the viewer's point of view, to help the audience imagine what was inside the two-dimensional work.
However, I did not depict anything concrete in the work. The reason for this is to eliminate fixed concepts and to stimulate the audience's imagination.

However, in terms of the way he composed his paintings, even when he depicted symbolic motifs, as in Hokusai's works, he was always conscious of the composition and configuration of the rectangular screen, and I am always impressed by the breadth of creativity in two-dimensional space and always refer to it as a reference.

While visiting Belgium, I visited the René Magritte Museum when I was stranded for a week due to a problem.

I visited the museum three times because I had time.  I had the feeling that the same group of works could be seen in different ways when I saw them over and over again.  Since then, I have gotten into the habit of going to see a single exhibition over and over again.

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I was fascinated by the fascination of noticing the different ways of seeing the works when there was an interval of time between them.  It may not seem like anything special, but I realized that I could acquire opportunities for “awareness” by doing so.

Through my exposure to and study of various works of art, I have become increasingly interested in “human existence” at the center of art, especially the inner nature of human beings.

Inquiry into the inner world of the human brain, consciousness, and latent abilities has been a continuous activity of mankind since ancient times,

My interest in the inner nature of man and the universe as an external existence is growing.

Issues such as politics, religion, and wars that occur in the world today can be said to be the karma of human beings.

However, they will become worthless in the information society of the future.

Therefore, my interest is not in these issues, but in what is more essential for human beings, the search for “human creativity,” and I would like to express the root of this power in a tangible form.

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Originally from Osaka, JAPAN, the artist lives and works in Los Angeles, California, USA.