, sometimes stylized professionally as SHOHEI, is a Japanese artist known for his drawings with ballpoint pens.

Early life

Shohei Otomo was born in 1980 and grew up in Tokyo. He is the son of

manga artist A is a comic artist who writes and/or illustrates manga. As of 2006, about 3,000 professional manga artists were working in Japan. Most manga artists study at an art college or manga school or take on an apprenticeship with another artist be ...

Katsuhiro Otomo is a Japanese manga artist, screenwriter, animator and film director. He is best known as the creator of '' Akira'', in terms of both the original 1982 manga series and the 1988 animated film adaptation. He was decorated a ''Chevalier'' of th ...

and his wife, Yoko. Starting at three or four years old, Otomo began drawing every day. He always envisioned that he would become an artist. His father did not give him drawing advice or lessons, and Shohei unsuccessfully tried to avoid being influenced by his artistic style, saying, "I had no intention of being influenced by my father, but now I see the influence in my work."

Career

Medium

Shohei Otomo studied oil painting while attending Tama Art University, but switched to ballpoint pens to create ink art, as oil paints are expensive. He prefers ink pens to pencils, as pencils left a silvery finish he found undesirable. He uses "ordinary ballpoints that you can buy anywhere for about 80 yen". Additionally, he uses permanent markers for coloring in objects. He creates the drawings on

paperboard Paperboard is a thick paper-based material. While there is no rigid differentiation between paper and paperboard, paperboard is generally thicker (usually over 0.30 mm, 0.012 in, or 12 Inch#equivalences, points) than paper and has certain ...

, though, at one gallery exhibition in Japan, he applied acrylic paint to a human model in a live sketching session. He spends up to a month on an illustration. A 2017 exhibition in Australia marked his first use of sculpture: He designed a

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, which he then illustrated with tattoo-like graphics.

Inspiration and symbolism

Otomo's work blends references to ukiyo-e, a kind of traditional Japanese art, and clichés that the rest of the world has about Japan. The works often contain tension between opposing concepts, such as traditionalism and progress, the Eastern and Western worlds, or order and chaos. His work is inspired by stress of Tokyo, a city he finds "suffocating".

Style

Otomo's illustrations are described as

hyperrealistic Jean Baudrillard ( , , ; 27 July 1929 – 6 March 2007) was a French sociologist, philosopher and poet with interest in cultural studies. He is best known for his analyses of media, contemporary culture, and technological communication, as wel ...

with cyberpunk elements. When including human figures in his art, he tends to cover their eyes with goggles, justifying this by saying, "if you show the eyes, the character’s presence overwhelms the picture". The only colors present in his art are black, white, and red, which he states is inspired by the color combination's use in ancient Japanese makeup: "the only colors used were red, black, and white: red lipstick, black teeth—Japanese women used to paint their teeth black—and white powder."

Exhibitions

His first art exhibition was in the US at DalArts gallery in

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in the early 2000s. In 2012, he had his first art exhibition in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

with an exhibition called ''Fool's Paradise''. In 2017, he had this third gallery exhibition in Australia. Australian gallery director Alexander Mitchell of

Backwoods Gallery Backwoods Gallery is a contemporary art gallery located in the Melbourne suburb of Collingwood, Australia. Founded in August 2010 the gallery exhibits Australian and international artists with a focus on urban contemporary art, street art St ...

called Otomo "most talented person I know", saying, "His technique is incredible, his work is flawless and his imagery is awe inspiring." He has additionally had his work displayed in exhibitions in France, Italy, and Mexico.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Otomo, Shohei Katsuhiro Otomo 1980 births Japanese artists Tama Art University alumni Artists from Tokyo Living people Ballpoint pen art