Kenn Sakurai a.k.a. esm-artificial is a Canadian Pop-culture graphic designer/artist and satirist.
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Hailing from Vancouver, British Columbia, this Canadian artist/designer graduated from the Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design or ECI ( now known as ECI) in 1999. He has been included in exhibitions in New York (8½ × 11 at the 55DSL Flagship store), Washington, California, Illinois, Vancouver, Tokyo, United Kingdom (Stick 'Em Up), Spain, France (Surface to Air and Hello Kissy Prints at Colette) and Sweden (Postcards from Home). Articles about Sakurai have been featured in Adbusters, Elle, Grafik,Darling, Edge, Architectural Record, Western Living, Spruce, Studio Voice, Vancouver Sun, and Lola Magazine. His works have been published in Pictoplasma, The Art of Rebellion, Izastikup, Poison-Control, All You Need Is Sticker Graphics, A Nice Set and 400mL Project France, All Messed Up, Typoshirt 1, Artaq, Stuck-Up Piece of Crap. From Punk Rock to Contemporary Art, Street Art - Contemporary Prints Victoria & Albert Museum
Sakurai's work includes many references to Supermodels, Hockey, cigar smoking, fishing, company artworks, people, and a favored pet dog in his work.
esm-artificial is known to mass-produce and deliver one-of-a-kind silk-screened work that touches upon some of the best and the worst aspects of American and popular world culture that often include supermodels, cars, rock stars, song lyrics, the 80s, and television personalities. Always humorous, poignant and thoughtful, his work also delves into other themes such as heartbreak and high school.
Sakurai fuses text with image and popular culture to catch the viewer's attention. His work contains notions of questioning commodity, advertising, and the bombardment of images the public receives daily for movies, music, fashion, and television. Through the hundreds of serigraph images he creates in his studio (on postcard sets, prints, stickers, etc.) he's fueling the globalization of American culture. And, just as Warhol addressed issues of fame and identity through repeated imagery, while at the same time reducing the subject, he also uses images of celebrity (the Rock, Martha Stewart, Milla Jovovich, etc.) to grab us and make us see something deeper than we usually do. In fact, he's so good at poking fun of consumerism and the media that even the most jaded person must laugh at the ridiculousness.