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★★日本語の詳細はこちらをご覧ください★★

Just in time for Halloween, we’re letting the yokai out to wander the streets and haunt the cafes of Azabujuban. Yokai are uniquely creepy, quirky beasts that roam the Japanese nights, frightening, tricking, and occasionally falling in love with us mere mortals. Mixing them in with the vengeful ghosts and the Shinto spirits adds up to a very active supernatural nightlife.

It’s no surprise, then, that I am drawn to these lost souls and creatures as ways to expand on the themes in my cut-paper artwork. For the past few years, I’ve been slowly building my menagerie. And now I’m ready to loose them onto an unsuspecting populace. Or, rather, a suspecting one, seeing as I’m telling you about it right now.

I’m thrilled to announce my first solo show, Night of the Yokai – Patrick Gannonの摩訶不思議な切絵展. Aside from the cut-paper work I’ve been evolving over the past couple years, I’m also experimenting with some very big new twists on paper art. I sincerely hope that all of you can join me in discovering the haunted (and often hilarious) myths and stories of Japan (and forgive me for twisting and squeezing them into my themes of human spirituality and emotion).

Oh yeah, and there’s gonna be a Halloween Party Saturday October 30. Space is limited so reservations are required (!) I’ll post a separate blog about that soon!

Dates: Oct. 25 (Mon) to Nov 7 (Sun) 2010 (* closed to the general public Sunday Oct. 31 for a workshop)
Time: 11:30am to 11pm
Place: Gallery Cafe Enyen website located about 5 minutes from Azabujuban station exit 4 on the Namboku line, and a five minute walk from Roppongi Hills
Address: 2-8-15 Azabujuban, Minato-ku, Tokyo 1F
Phone: 03-3453-4021
Map: right here

for a bigger map, click here or the postcard

American Comics Exhibition 2010 ~Bad Guys~ from SuperVillain to Anti-hero crashes into Gallery Kopis tomorrow in a burst of fire and fury.

You can find all of the pertinent details on The AmeComi Website, in English and Japanese. There are 15 artists in the show, and I can’t wait to see the villainous depths everyone dove to. Here are a couple details for you:

Dates: Sept. 26 (Sun) to Oct 2nd (Sat) 2009 (closed Tuesday the 28th)
Time: 11am to 7pm (First Day: 1pm – 6pm; Last Day: Closes at 5pm)
Place: Gallery Kopis (http://www.g-kopis.com/) located less than a minute from Kiyosumi-Shirakawa St. exit A3.
Address: 1-2-12 1F Shirakawa Koutoh-ku Tokyo 135-0021
Phone: 03-5639-2381

click the postcard for a bigger map

American Comics Exhibition 2010 ~Bad Guys~ from SuperVillain to Anti-hero is swooping into Gallery Kopis soon, seething with villainous rage and multi-hued spandex. I’ll have all the pertinent and evil information for you in the next couple days. But first, I wanted to share with all y’all miscreants some of the diabolical promo art my devious pal Patrik W. conjured forth from the abyss.

You may remember last year’s show, where he mercilessly desecrated some of the greatest paintings in the world. This year, he took wicked aim at sculpture. Will the world ever be the same again?

50 points to whoever correctly identifies the following cognitive baddy.

Something miraculous occurred on July 30, 2010, the final day of the 風雷貌 / A Wind-Swept and Thunderous Countenance show at Gallery G2 over in Ginza. I, for maybe the first time, remembered to bring my camera with me. I could have sworn I had it opening day. I even put the little guy in my bag. Somehow, it escaped, wriggling out and hiding under a mound of paper.

There was such a great variety of work in the gallery, from metal sculpture to painting to dolls to cut paper. A plethora of techniques and styles and outlooks on the world.

I encourage you to have a look at the gallery on my Facebook page and see for yourself.

As for the Flemish-inspired portraits of wind and thunder above…well, after seeing them hanging in the gallery, I’ve decided I’m not quite 100% satisfied just yet. About 98%, I think. So, I’ll be going back in and tweaking this and adding that. So, no close ups. Maybe soon. Then again, I’m buried so deep in doing some very cool commission pieces and prepping for the next two shows this Fall… well, it might be a while.

Listen closely to these steamy and sultry summer nights and you will hear it. The expectant stillness. The breath-baited calm that heralds the coming of the storm. Riding on the shrieking winds the typhoon will soon be among us, battering us with pelting rain and berating us with peals of thunder.

It’s been nearly a year since Gallery G2 last invited us to play around with the forces of nature in 2009′s 風雷暴 / Fujin Raijin Exhibition. This year, rather than tempting the wrath of the storm gods, we are exploring the crackling countenance of thunder (as well as lightning) and the gusty guise of wind. Now, when I think “countenance”, I think portrait. And when I think “portrait” I think Flem. As in Flanders. And so it was that I looked to the Dutch masters and their wacky chiaroscuro for inspiration.

So, yeah, I drew a portrait of the wind. Stop on by the gallery before the 31st to take a gander. Even in my sleep-starved state I was mightily impressed by the girth of talent on display. Everything from metal sculpture to acrylic painting to hand-made dolls and, ahem, cut-paper are represented. It’s well worth weathering the sudden summer heat here in Tokyo.

I’ll be at the gallery Saturday, July 24th (count on me being late…it’s a safe bet). I’d like to be there at least one more day, but I haven’t decided which. Drop me a comment or email with your availability, and I’ll try to be there!

Here are the details:

Name: 風雷貌 / A Wind-Swept and Thunderous Countenance

dates: July. 22nd (Thurs) to July 31st (Sat) 2010 gallery closed Wed. 7/28

Times: 12pm to 7pm (Last Day: Closes at 4pm)

place: Gallery G2; located in Ginza, just around the corner from Melsa (メルサ）.
Tel: 03-3567-1555
gallery website: right here.
MAP

artists / 出品者：大澤冬樺（墨）／田村晴海（創作人形）／中村滋（アクリル）／パトリック・ギャノン（切絵）／松井直友（金属）／守屋礼子（アクリル）

日付: ２０１０年７月２２日（木）〜７月6３１日（土）
時間: １２時〜１９時 / 最終日は１6時まで
住所: Gallery G2 東京都中央区銀座２丁目８−２　日紫１F
電話: 03-3567-1555
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The way things usually work is as follows:

I plan and scheme and schedule for a couple of months before each Tokyo exhibition, working out the time needed for every piece of art and pre-show preparation, making sure to give myself plenty of time for accidents both happy and grumpy. Then, somehow I’m pulling an all-nighter right before the show, putting the finishing touches on one more piece I Just Had To Do. The morning of the show, basking in the victory of completion, I pack up every item and head out. Every item but one.

That item is inevitably a camera. Hasami No Oto (The Sound of Scissors) at Niji Gallery last month followed this pattern pretty closely. However, in days past, I would somehow manage to forget the camera (or to charge the battery) each and every time I dropped by the gallery. This time I remembered it on the last day. Probably because my vigilant wife accompanied me.

Sadly, that didn’t mean that I was conscientious enough to actually use it. The poor little thing sat in my bag all day, mewing like a forgotten kitten, waiting to achieve it’s snapshot-snapping purpose. And I ignored it. Luckily, my friend Mayuko Fujino, another artist at the show, had just accidentally bought a humongous digital SLR and was experimenting with it all day. You can see the fruits of her labors right here.

So, a big thank you goes out to Mayuko for sharing the photos with me and letting me share them with all of you. I hope those of you who couldn’t make it to the show feel as inspired by the wide variety of cut paper artwork as I was. Enjoy!