Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Emerging Japanese Artist File 1: Kenta Cobayashi





Kenta Cobayashi (b. Kawasaki, Kanagawa-Prefecture, Japan, 1992, male)

Cobayashi was awarded the Bachelor of Fine Arts at Tokyo Zokei University, Tokyo in 2015.  He has organized MMGGZZNN, a project to hand-publish mega-sized zines in collaboration with his international artist friends.  He has shown his work at many group exhibitions in Japan and Europe, including: 'The Devil May Care'Noorderlicht Photogalle, The Netherlands, 2015), 'hyper-materiality on photo' (G/P gallery Shinonome, Tokyo, 2015), ‘New Japanese Photography (DOOMED GALLERY, London, 2015) etc.  



Cobayashi will have his first solo exhibition at G/P Gallery from February 27 to March 27, 2016 (curated by Shigeo Goto).  He is also working on an upcoming publication by NEWFAVE, after self-publishing a zine with Daisuke Yokota last year, and self-publishing two books in 2014.  His new book will include pictures taken at a shared studio (PALAST) he runs in Tokyo, where he has lived and worked with his artist friends since January 2015.

Cobayashi is highly inspired by Douglas Adams’s “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy”.  He acknowledges the fact that we live in the world where everything arises from chaos, and he hopes that his work reflects the current state of society you would perceive if you could use a time machine and visit.

Kenta has collaborated with Daisuke Yokota, NORIKONAKAZATO (fashion designer) and Yuki Takada (programmer) for his exhibitions, and plans to work with the other artists and creators in the future.

http://kentacobayashi.com/