Characterism

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Characterism is a global phenomenon in the contemporary art market initiated by artists influenced by international pop cultures from the 1990’s onwards. Many contemporary artists are incorporating images from cartoons and comics of the West, and also Japanime, manga, and cute electronic products such as personal minicomputers & telecommunication products such as Hello Kitty cell phones, Sony Aibo and Dream Robot. They were also influenced by characters such as R2D2 in Star Wars, and other movies. The film maker Hayao Miyazaki whose themes of nature vs. man which appeared in his 1997 film "Mononoke Hime" or "Princess Hime" have also inspired these new Pop artists, as was Rumiko Takahashi. The first of this new wave of artists were Mariko Mori and Takeshi Murakami from Japan.

The term “Characterism” was coined in 2003 by Yuko Nii and Yuko Wylie who hosted the first major exhibition of 67 artists of this pop movement at the Williamsburg Art & Historical Center. The show was juried by Charlotta Kotik, Curator and Chair of the Department of Contemporary Art, Brooklyn Museum of Art

The 2003 exhibit included some of today's leading Manga artists – Kia Asamiya (Dark Angel), Yoshiro Komado & Tommy Ohtsuka (from Slayers) and Hitoshi Tomizawa (from Alien Nine), but goes far beyond to include surrealists such as Tim Slowinski, and Kelly Newcomer, both mentioned by Terrance Lindall as two of the worlds top ten surrealists in the March 2006 issue of Art and Antiques Magazine. The show included an international spectrum of artists.

“More than most contemporary art movements, Characterism presents the underbelly of current day popular culture for what it truly is: a thought altering, time and space machine to nowhere fast. The common link among the artists of this movement is a fixation with parallel worlds inhabited by curious creatures knee deep in self-analysis. The simultaneously embrace and berate the cute, the quirky and the cliché. They stretch the concept of the self-indulgent artist through a quirky sort of kitsch, colored by video games, visual worlds, cartoons and cold light. And in their studios, where their art is made, one can imagine a sanctuary from the real”. D. Dominick Lombardi