Vol.57 Young Artists / English Version

Young Artists

New York, the center of the art world, has attracted artists from
around the world, and not only to Manhattan.
Williamsburg, a neighborhood in the borough of Brooklyn,
has become a magnet for young artists. It’s said that this area
is the “new” East Village of Manhattan in the 1980’s.

I would like to introduce you to some young artists who
are based in Williamsburg:
Hiro Kurata, a painter ;
Masaru, a musician; Karl, a painter;
and Alex Dodge , a conceptual artist and designer.

Hiro’s paintings are colorful, yet have grotesque elements
and a youthful power of emotion.

He has held solo exhibitions in Japan, Europe and the United
States.

Masaru, a bassist, is a member of the Indie Rock band,
“Trouble Andrew”, a very popular group among young people
in the USA. Now I will look forward to going to his concerts.

Karl’s paintings are simple and dynamic.

He is half Japanese and half German.　Because he is so tall, his
paintings are large scale. He will have a solo exhibit in
California in the near future, so for now he is working on
many large paintings for the show.

Although Alex Dodge, a conceptual artist, once worked as a
Director at a gallery in the Chelsea art district in Manhattan,
he is now having his third solo exhibit, “GENERATIVE”,
at the Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery in Williamsburg,

exploring the relationships between
humanity, technology, art and design.

Alex launched the Brooklyn based tech start up company,

Generative, with Japanese physicist and video game designer.
The three founded Generative as an independent research and
development lab focused on mobile technology and visualization.

Alex designed some of the innovative pieces based on the concept
of GENERATIVE in the show, which stand out in the white space:

The Power Step white sneakers store electricity in batteries
embedded in the shoe sole every time people walk.
You generate electricity with each step you take…a Green Eco Shoe!
The electricity can be used to charge mobile phones, digital cameras
and recorders. They would be useful for me to wear to interviews,
so that if the batteries in my digital camera or recorder run out,
I can recharge them with my Power Step shoes.

The Sleep Talker looks like a hat, but it can share dreams with
other people, either beside you, in Europe, or on a social network
like MySpace.

The Vantage Point (Integrated Mobile Broadcaster), can record,
using an embedded camera built inside a pair of headphones,
everything you see all day and upload it to a web sharer or
social network via Wi-Fi. Your friends in Tokyo can see the same
things you saw in New York.

These Space Age items are like a dream. Although these are
conceptual prototypes, these artists’ dreams will influence the future.

The chair that Alex is sitting in is a ZAISU, an adaptation of the
Japanese floor chair of the same name. It is a useful and relaxing
way to use a laptop, Kindle or any hand-held electronic game,
because it places no pressure on the hips.

This chair has a practical immediate use.
I am sure that Alex will have a future sitting in ZAISU.