Kosuke Ajiro《The Night Melts》

Kosuke Ajiro

《The night melts》

Year: 2024

Edition: unique

Size: 33.3×24.2×2.0 cm

Medium: acrylic, canvas

Kosuke Ajiro

Born in 東京都, 1980

2000 Graduated, Visual Design (evening course), Kuwasawa Design School

Kosuke Ajiro (b. 1980) is a Tokyo-based artist. Since childhood he has expressed and pursued an 'other world' within himself. Centered on acrylic paintings, he has also worked in ceramic forms and painted plates, three-dimensional doll works, animation, and music.

The 'other world' is grounded in the artist's childhood memories, his influences, and everyday events, yet it is expressed through the narrative of 'an unknown civilization that once flourished and then perished at roughly a medieval stage of development.' It is fiction and, at the same time, the artist's inner reality. As an archaeologist excavating this lost civilization, Ajiro records, one after another, the distant history that unfolds before him with his brush. This is why his works are like ancient relics, bearing traces of decay and the passage of time. Each work has its own period setting and context; the figures and fantastical monsters that appear are sometimes given proper names, and the depicted scenes carry meaning. They may explain origins, offer lessons, take the form of fables, or recount small incidents. These detailed settings expand to the grand scale of dynasties, creation myths, and civilizations, and their full extent is not yet known even to the artist himself. In this 'other world,' freed from constraints, all manner of absurdities appear. It is no surprise that cruelty and humor, the grotesque and the cute, coexist. The artist often witnesses himself transformed into the figure of a 'girl,' a doppelganger phenomenon that he records in his paintings.

In Ajiro's work one can find elements of traditional Japanese picture scrolls, medieval European manuscripts, and popular religious art from all times and places, with the influence of Hieronymus Bosch standing out in particular. In terms of expressing the depths of consciousness, his work can also be related to Jung, Surrealist visions, and Outsider Art, while showing an affinity with contemporary Japanese character culture.

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