It’s an irony of Western art that our vision of modern metropolitan life was shaped, via Impressionism, by ukiyo-e prints — ‘pictures of the floating world’ of Edo, Japan.
It’s an irony of Western art that our vision of modern metropolitan life was shaped, via Impressionism, by ukiyo-e prints — ‘pictures of the floating world’ of Edo, Japan. In his new exhibition, Tokyo, at Flowers East, Jiro Osuga updates that vision for the 21st century.
The son of a Japanese businessman, Osuga left his native Tokyo for London in 1970 at the age of 12 and studied at Chelsea and the Royal College of Art. Since his first exhibition at Flowers in 2001, he has capitalised on his confused cultural identity and natural shyness, projecting a bashful, bespectacled comic persona that has come to dominate his work. In his 2009 installation ‘Café Jiro’ at Flowers Central, painted Jiros occupied all the pavement tables and all the bar stools in the café window.
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