Acrylic on canvas

130 × 130 cm. 51 1/8 × 51 1/8 in.

Signed and dated in English on the reverse
EXHIBITED
27 Aug - 29 Sep 2022, SELFY: Perfect Edition – Masato Yamaguchi Solo Exhibition, Cuppar Space, Hong Kong

PROVENANCE
Private Collection, Asia
Note: This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by SH Gallery, Tokyo and signed by the artist

Everyday Images of You and Me
Masato Yamaguchi's Selfie Girl

Born in Tokyo in 1980, Masato Yamaguchi was influenced by American pop art master Andy Warhol and the highly regarded "Shibuya-kei Graffiti" movement in 1990s Japan. Despite majoring in economics in college, he decisively chose to pursue his artistic dreams, gaining recognition as an artist starting in 2004. Inspired from pop art and ready-made art, he combines the two to create uniquely industrial-themed paintings, infusing virtual objects with real-world significance. Over the past decade, he has held numerous solo exhibitions in Japan, won the "Independent Tokyo" award in 2019, started sharing his representative series SELFY on social media the following year, and held his first exhibition in Hong Kong in 2022. The classic piece presented in this spring auction, Stay with You*Hong Kong, belongs to that series.

Self-presentation and Dialectical Reflections on Reality

In this artwork, Yamaguchi depicts an innocent girl taking a tilted selfie with a smartphone. Using only four colours against a light grey monochromatic background, the artist employs minimal lines and large areas of black and white to flexibly outline the character and details: a black hoodie, phone case, and eyes. The phone case bears the white text of the programming language "TRUE / FALSE", alluding to the vast, indistinguishable information in the online world. In contrast, the artist uses varying lengths of fine lines resembling hair to depict the fullness and airy texture of the girl's bobbed hair and dynamic eyelashes, adding a sense of movement to the flat composition. The girl's round eyes echo the round dual lenses of the phone, creating a mirroring effect, prompting viewers to contemplate the relationship between reality and illusion conveyed by the image. It leads to a deeper reflection on how we discern and perceive the true face of the world in our contemporary lives filled with the internet, online videos, and AI.

Japanese contemporary art historian Miwa Kutsuna once stated, "Masato Yamaguchi's works go beyond reality to criticize reality." In addition to exploring virtual and real issues, viewers can sense the ubiquity of contemporary selfies, self-exposure, idol creation, and Warhol's perspective that "in the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes." It provokes collective reflection.

Price estimate:
HKD: 50,000 - 100,000
USD: 6,400 - 12,800

Auction Result:
HKD: --