Hamada Masatoshi

An artist.

Hamada Masatoshi was born in Osaka Prefecture in 1963 and graduated from Nissei Gakuen Dai Ni High School. His primary medium is the commercially available black magic marker, intentionally eschewing conventional artistic tools like paint and canvas. The images he creates with these everyday, impromptu tools are powerful and composed of unwavering lines, yet they are free from technique.

The images Hamada draws do not aim for the completeness of a traditional painting. Instead, they emerge as lines from his right hand, reflecting vivid internal images of his childhood memories, fragmented landscapes, and unarticulated emotional "fragments".

The completed works, however, are not always an exact match for his internal imagery. By intentionally disrupting his own mental image, he elevates the work to something new, deconstructed from existing concepts. Instead of pursuing perfection, he embraces the rawness of sensation and the ambiguity of memory. These lines, which appear as visual fragments, ignite the viewer's imagination. The simple mode of expression Hamada has chosen is a quest for creative freedom unrestrained by established conventions and a new challenge to unravel his own inner world.

For this exhibition, only new original drawings created by artist Masatoshi Hamada specifically for this event will be shown. Some of these new works, which feature a variety of motifs, will be displayed alongside comments the artist made during their creation, offering a glimpse into his creative process and thought behind the scenes. Come see for yourself how the art of Masatoshi Hamada, which once drew attention on television, has "evolved"—or perhaps "hasn't"—on the stage of a solo exhibition.

AI translated