Editor's note: This article contains artistic nudity.
Gaku Azuma is a multimedia artist who has a long relationship with the Japanese art world. He was born to a father who was an ōgi-e (扇絵) artist, which meant that he used traditional paper fans as a canvas for his paintings.
Following his creative familial background, he’s been involved in creating his own paintings from a young age. Over the years, he’s continued to produce paintings and has held exhibitions for them while balancing his job as an art director.
In recent years, however, his paintings have flown from a blank paper to find a new canvas in the human body. Around 2012, Azuma started experimenting with body paintings. He stated that he was “fascinated” by the experience of painting on skin and has been obsessed with it since then.
He regularly shares his body painting work on his Instagram.
He’s amassed over 180 paintings, with each one depicting something different and highly elaborate. These paintings were photographed and collected for his recently released art book entitled, “Dress Code”.
To celebrate the book’s publication, Azuma will be sharing his body painting work across various places in Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe through an exhibition. Two art galleries and around 30 bars & dining establishments that Azuma has a personal connection to will be hosting his work.
The exhibition will run from December 9 to 27, 2020. You can find the details for the gallery-based exhibitions below. As for the bar & restaurant exhibitions, you can find the full list of names for the venues in Japanese on the event’s online press release.
Gaku Azuma “Dress Code” Body Painting Art Exhibition (Gallery venues)
Editor's note: This article contains artistic nudity.
Gaku Azuma is a multimedia artist who has a long relationship with the Japanese art world. He was born to a father who was an ōgi-e (扇絵) artist, which meant that he used traditional paper fans as a canvas for his paintings.
Following his creative familial background, he’s been involved in creating his own paintings from a young age. Over the years, he’s continued to produce paintings and has held exhibitions for them while balancing his job as an art director.
In recent years, however, his paintings have flown from a blank paper to find a new canvas in the human body. Around 2012, Azuma started experimenting with body paintings. He stated that he was “fascinated” by the experience of painting on skin and has been obsessed with it since then.
He regularly shares his body painting work on his Instagram.
He’s amassed over 180 paintings, with each one depicting something different and highly elaborate. These paintings were photographed and collected for his recently released art book entitled, “Dress Code”.
To celebrate the book’s publication, Azuma will be sharing his body painting work across various places in Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe through an exhibition. Two art galleries and around 30 bars & dining establishments that Azuma has a personal connection to will be hosting his work.
The exhibition will run from December 9 to 27, 2020. You can find the details for the gallery-based exhibitions below. As for the bar & restaurant exhibitions, you can find the full list of names for the venues in Japanese on the event’s online press release.
Gaku Azuma “Dress Code” Body Painting Art Exhibition (Gallery venues)
Venue 1: 188 Creative Dining & Gallery Exhibition
Address: 1-4-21 Sennnichimae, Chuo-ku, Osaka
Gallery website (Japanese)
Venue 2: Gallery AMI-KANOKO
Address: 2F 1-2-7 Sennnichimae, Chuo-ku, Osaka
Gallery website (Japanese)