TATSUHITO HORIKOSHI

Executed in light pastel tones in a refined Japanese aesthetic, Tatsuhito Horikoshi’s oil portraits display universal expressions, reflecting his vision of the world between distancing and sociability.

Wishing to go beyond the codes of academic and realistic portraiture, Tatsuhito Horikoshi paints a portrait of the Y and Z generations born in Japan, inhabited by complex feelings: between melancholy, solitude, pride and rebellion. Each subject features spokespersons from this Japanese youth in search of contact, spirituality and a pure childlike innocence now altered by the reality of life.

‘I have this feeling buried inside me that I barely exist. Sometimes I feel the difficulty of living on the margins of society.’

As sociologist Koichi Iwabuchi explains, ‘The image of Japan as a faceless economic power has been replaced by that of a country that displays ‘soft power’ by massively producing and exporting ‘cool’ and ‘kawaii’ cultures in the form of comics, movies, video games, characters, fashion, food, etc.’

Despite being able to express this clearly, Japan is still a country that has a strong cultural identity. Despite being able to express it clearly in words, Tatsuhito Horikoshi seeks, through art, to establish a real dialogue between his vision of the world and the one imposed by modern societies marking the hegemony of media and cultural globalisation.

The eyes of his characters replace his own. The mouths are untied and give us their secrets. Let’s listen and hear. The artist speaks to us...