TOMOO GOKITA

(b. 1969, Tokyo, Japan)

 Tomoo Gokita was born in 1969 in Tokyo, Japan. Gokita briefly studied draughting and painting at a local art college in 1988 and worked as a graphic designer early in in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He developed his signature style of monochromatic and greyscale painting from his career as a graphic designer. With a background in graphic design, the Tokyo-based artist was initially inspired to create art by his love of manga and animation. Most of his works are inspired by vintage magazines, film stills, pornography, and postcards. Gokita gained a strong reputation in fashion and music circles due to his success as a graphic designer, but ultimately quit to pursue a career in drawing and painting, citing frustration with the limits placed on his creative freedom.

In 2005, he set aside graphic design entirely for the unconstrained artistic freedom of painting and drawing. From the beginning of his career as an artist, Gokita has worked in a broad but distinctive range of styles and subject matter. His pencil and ink drawings range from suburban scenes depicted in photo-realistic detail to cartoonish renditions of wrestler masks. Earlier canvases from the late 2000s tend towards ethereal abstraction, be it writhing organic forms, tessellating geometric patterns, or heavily distorted figures isolated within ambiguous backgrounds.

 Tomoo Gokita’s gray-scale paintings depict archetypal figures, such as a pin-up girls, gangsters, starlets, cowboys, and noir detectives with their faces concealed. Stark contrasts in tonal range, from velvety matte black to pristine white gesso, heighten the drama within the composition. His paintings reflect these pop cultural influences, evoking iconic celebrity headshots and pornographic magazines. Executed with extreme technical precision, his erasure of the face through Neo-expressionistic flourishes or scraping gestures disturbs and adds a humorous element to his compositions.