Some rare encounters are available are spawning in Los Angeles.
The Pokemon company revealed a collaboration with 20 artists crafting Pokemon into stunning artwork consisting of over 70 pieces that marries traditional Japanese art and video games.
The Pokémon X Kogei Exhibition in Japan House LA is now open to the public until January 7th and is free to enter.
Playful images of Pikachu, Rowlet, Litten and Popplio stencil-dyed onto silk cloth, a Charizard integrated into a large ceramic jar and a dazzling Jolteon sculpted from individual pieces of gold-and silver-plated copper hammered into the shape of lightning bolts – these are some of the ingenious creations in POKÉMON X KOGEI | Playful Encounters of Pokémon and Japanese Craft, the new exhibition at JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles from July 25, 2023 to January 7, 2024. The exhibition brings together two of Japan’s most celebrated contributions to world culture – beloved characters from one of the world’s biggest entertainment franchises and craft that has evolved and been refined over centuries.
Supervised by the National Crafts Museum in Kanazawa, Japan, with special support from The Pokémon Company, the exhibition features over 70 works of varying materials and diverse techniques created by twenty of Japan’s most accomplished craft artists, ranging from a Living National Treasure, the metal artist Morihito Katsura (b.1944), to exciting young artists like Taiichiro Yoshida (b.1989), also a metal artist. The artists were challenged with the task of using their skills and ever-evolving techniques – in lacquer, ceramics, textiles, metalwork, and other media – to creatively channel the world of the globally popular Pokémon brand.
Section 1 | Each section features works crafted in diverse media with extraordinary skill, imagination, and an impressive understanding of Pokémon. For instance, in the Appearance section, metal artist Taiichiro Yoshida recreates one of the beloved Pokémon, Eevee, in its original form (a four-legged, furry creature) and its three first-generation evolutions, the more formidable Jolteon, Vaporeon and Flareon. Using hand-made chisels, Yoshida cuts copper plates, engraving patterns into their surface to form small pieces symbolizing each Pokémon’s type. Each piece is then colored using a technique unique to the evolutionary process of that Pokémon, such as plating with electricity, or a chemical transformation through fire. The small individual plates are then assembled to create each three-dimensional work.
Section 2 | For the Stories section, celebrated textile designer Reiko Sudo invites the viewer to enter the magical world of the franchise’s most recognizable Pokémon, the yellow Pikachu. With her “Pikachu Forest,” made up of over 900 strands of lace suspended from the ceiling, in four distinctive designs, each containing Pikachu, the artist invites the audience to enter a forest overflowing with yellow light inhabited by Pikachu.
Section 3 | In the final Life section, ceramic artist Keiko Masumoto uses traditional techniques and styles to create highly original works that fuse Pokémon and vessels. In her Shigaraki ware vases, Charizard, Charmander, Moltres, Vulpix and Ninetales all emerge from the clay. For Masumoto, this is the first time she has made full-scale Shigaraki pottery using a wood-fire kiln. She says, “Until now I had no motif, I wanted to express with Shigaraki ware, but this time, it just clicked.” These Pokémon are all Fire-type Pokémon, with Vulpix evolving into Ninetales when exposed to a fire stone, making the Shigaraki jar, a medieval, unglazed ceramic style in which fire creates burnt designs on the jar’s surface in the kiln, an inspired choice.
What do you think about this artwork? Let us know in the comments.
