Tokio Kuniyoshi
REGION FREE
Through extended photographic expression and reinterpretation as a media, I connect and cross the energies of nature and the city - cultures and histories rooted in the diverse landscapes of Okinawa and New York City.
The exhibition features over several hundred photographs, including the world's first attempts to print New York landscapes and people on Ryukyu limestone and Okinawan gecko paper, as well as documentary works of the artist's own life and with his friends through photographs layout on Okinawa's traditional “mincer” pattern.
Exhibition hall
Hotel Anteroom Naha 3-27-11 Maejima, Naha City, Okinawa
ARTIST
Tokio Kuniyoshi
Born in Naha City, Okinawa. Resides in New York City.
Moved to the U.S. in 2002 and studied photography in San Francisco for 4 years.
In 2006, he moved to New York City in search of new possibilities.
In 2008, he obtained an artist visa and established his own company “shootinglife LLC” in New York.
In 2009, he and his friends established their own photography studio in Long Island City, New York.
While he mainly works with portraits, he has also focused on exhibiting fine art photography since the beginning of his photography career, and has exhibited his work in many shows in Japan and abroad, winning numerous awards in competitions.
Since 2014, he has gone beyond flat photographic expression and challenged himself to create installations and experimental work expression using photography as a medium. Having started photography in the age of film and the darkroom, and having lived through the transition to digital photography, he has created many works that adopt and blend both analog and digital media.
He has developed a unique style that combines the vivid sense of color, yuimaru spirit, looseness, and sake culture of his native Okinawa backbone with the urban sensibility and diversity of San Francisco and New York.
Rooted in the Okinawan chanpuru spirit, he is not bound by one thing, and explores new possibilities by mixing different elements.