Five Up-and-Coming Artists x "ROLF BENZ TOKYO" Artworks for ROLF BENZ TOKYO

Five Up-and-Coming Artists x “ROLF BENZ TOKYO” Resonance of Contemporary Art and Traditional German Interior
Artworks for ROLF BENZ TOKYO” to be held from Friday, October 20

Artill Inc. (Head office: Kita-ku, Osaka; President: Masanori Miwa) is pleased to announce that it will hold an exhibition at ROLF BENZ TOKYO (Aoyama, Tokyo), the flagship store of the German luxury furniture brand ROLF BENZ, featuring works by up-and-coming young artists Masashi Ishikawa, Haruka Ito, Karin Osha, Yoichiro Otani and The exhibition “Artworks for ROLF BENZ TOKYO” by five up-and-coming young artists, Masashi Ishikawa, Haruka Ito, Karin Osha, Yoichiro Otani and Yoshi Sugiyama, will be held from October 20 (Friday) to November 3 (Friday), 2023.

Event Summary

Artworks for ROLF BENZ TOKYO

Masashi Ishikawa, Haruka Ito, Karin Osha, Yoichiro Otani, Yoshi Sugiyama

Period: October 20 (Friday) – November 3 (Friday), 2023

Hours: 11:00 – 19:00, closed on Wednesdays

Venue: ROLF BENZ TOKYO

Almost Blue A Building, 4-6, Minami-Aoyama 6-chome, Minato-ku, Tokyo

ROLF BENZ TOKYO Representative: 03-6419-4321

About the Exhibition

In today’s society, there exist all kinds of divisions and challenges such as discrimination, inequality, military conflicts, and environmental issues. In order to resolve these divisions and issues, we aim to create empathy through art and create opportunities for people with different ideas to understand each other. This year’s event will provide a place for people to connect by crossing elements of art and interior design to create resonance.

The works of five artists with different perspectives and modes of expression will be exhibited in ROLF BENZ, a space that offers functional and timeless design that is representative of Germany and interior design that is close to our daily lives.

The exhibition is intended to provide an opportunity to view a wide range of works, including three-dimensional cast metal works, works that are both two-dimensional and three-dimensional, figurative paintings, abstract paintings, and artists who create works that change between concrete and abstract depending on the distance between them, and to reflect on the relationship between the work and the viewer, the work and the work, and the work and the space. The exhibition is intended to encourage visitors to recall their own ways of seeing things and lifestyles by capturing the relationship between artworks, viewers, artworks, artworks and spaces.

We hope you will enjoy the beautiful contrast between the functional elements of ROLF BENZ’s interiors and the emotional elements of the five artists’ works, which appeal to and reach the viewer’s hearts, and enjoy the space where interior and art complement each other and are woven together.

ROLF BENZ was founded in 1964 in the city of Nagold, Germany, a place where the techniques essential to sofa manufacturing, such as sturdy frame construction and careful upholstery techniques, flourish. Known for introducing the world’s first corner sofa and establishing a new lifestyle, ROLF BENZ has been a constant focus of attention as an industry leader ever since.

ROLF BENZ TOKYO, the world’s first officially certified flagship store of ROLF BENZ, a luxury furniture brand representing Germany, will be the venue for the exhibition, which will feature a variety of works and interiors by five artists active in Japan and abroad. The collaboration between the five artists and the interior designers will be held at ROLF BENZ TOKYO. Please come and experience the new collection including the latest sofa “MOYO”, which will make its first appearance in Japan.

Artist Profile

Masashi Ishikawa

Born in Tokyo in 1992, Ishikawa graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts in 2017 with a degree in Crafts. He studied metal casting, one of the metal crafting techniques, and is a plastic artist who creates works mainly in metal. He uses the human body as a motif in many of his works, and creates unique forms by repeatedly making drawings based on step-by-step abstraction of sketches. Her specialty is practical works and relief works that combine elements of art, craft, and design, and in recent years she has been challenging new forms of expression by incorporating 3D technology into traditional craft techniques.

Haruka Ito

Haruka Ito was born in 1989 in Shizuoka Prefecture and currently lives and works in Tokyo, Japan. He works as an assistant of education and research in the laboratory of Japanese Painting at Tokyo University of the Arts. Ito’s paintings of nighttime cityscapes and factory areas are pale and delicate, evoking the warmth of people’s lives. The beauty of these fantastical scenes gently envelops the viewer’s heart.

Karin Okoso

Born in Tokyo in 1993. Graduated from Joshibi University of Art and Design, Department of Art Production and Expression. While working as a model for advertisements and magazines, she started her career as an artist in 2017. She has held three solo exhibitions as a painter. She has also held LIVE painting and workshops with children. His paintings using gold leaf are distinctive. He expresses his imagination mainly through abstract paintings.

Yoichiro Otani

Graduated from Kuwasawa Design School in 2015, published a collection of works “Rain Yoichiro Otani Works” (Little More) in 2017, and started full-fledged activities as an artist. 2018 Completed a master’s degree in design at Tokyo University of the Arts. 2018-2019: Exchange student at Tsinghua University in China. He depicted rain by placing countless Chinese characters based on the syllables “ki” and “u.” The starting point of this pronunciation is the word “praying rain,” which means praying for rain. The realization that there are multiple words related to rain, such as “joy rain,” “demon rain,” “tree rain,” “rainy season,” and “rainy season,” led to further derivation of other Chinese characters. In the end, about 50 kanji characters were used.

Kei Sugiyama

Born in Nara, Japan in 1988. Currently based in Tokyo, Sugiyama entered the Department of Painting, Faculty of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts in 2011, graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts in 2015, entered the Graduate School of Japanese Painting, Tokyo University of the Arts in 2017, completed the MFA program at Tokyo University of the Arts, entered the Doctoral Program in Japanese Painting, Graduate School of Fine Arts at Tokyo University of the Arts in 2020, and completed the Ph. Completed doctoral program in Japanese painting at Tokyo University of the Arts, doctoral dissertation “Absence”, 2021 Worked as a teaching and research assistant in the Japanese painting instructor’s office at Tokyo University of the Arts. Sugiyama’s works skillfully employ the techniques of “seeing” and “quotation” in Japanese art, attempting to indirectly express the presence of the owner and allude to past works. His crayon drawings, colored with mineral pigments, have a unique soft appeal.

ROLF BENZ

Rolf Benz was founded in 1964 by Rolf Benz in Nagold, southern Germany. The company first attracted attention when it introduced the world’s first corner sofa, and since then it has been a leading German luxury furniture brand offering timeless designs in line with the lifestyle of the times, the utmost comfort, and the highest quality furniture “Made in Germany.

ROLF BENZ TOKYO

Address: Almost Blue A Building, 4-6, Minami-Aoyama 6-chome, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-0062

Almost Blue A Building, 4-6, Minami-Aoyama 6-chome, Minato-ku, Tokyo

Phone number: 03-6419-4321

Fax number: 03-6419-4322

Closed: Wednesdays (except national holidays)

Business hours: 11:00-19:00

Access: 8-minute walk from Omotesando Station (Tokyo Metro Ginza Line, Hanzomon Line, Chiyoda Line) Exit A5, 10-minute walk from Exit B3

Official website: https://www.rolf-benz-tokyo.jp/