Tomoo Gokita: Peekaboo

Coinciding with his 2018 exhibition at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, this catalogue shows 40 artworks, 17 of which are presented for the first time, as well as the series of 225 portraits of wrestlers painted between 2002 and 2018. The catalogue includes a wraparound poster sleeve which features the painting entitled "Come Play with Me," a new work created by Gokita on the occasion of the exhibition.

Tomoo Gokita started out his artistic career in illustration, garnering inspiration from 1960s and 1970s American subculture, underground magazines and photography. His innovative ideas and his technique of freely constructing his pictures as if he were creating a collage form the starting point not only for his early drawing work, but for all of Gokita’s most notable creations up to the present day. His works, rendered primarily in a monochrome palette, radiate a sense of the myriad possibilities born of the diverse expressive means at his disposal. Carefully calculated use of gradation and shadows create a slick, fashionable allure, the contrast between simple lines and irregular, distorted shapes provide humorousness and nostalgia, and the journeys between the representational and the abstract give his imagery a powerful ambivalence. In particular, the suggestive and mysterious images and situations he chooses help catalyse the possibilities inherent in his visual argot, appealing irresistibly to the viewers’ imaginations and beckoning them inside his unique world.

Physical description:
Hardcover, 128 pages
Japan: Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, 2018
ISBN: 978-4-908439-09-4
9 x 12 inches
Weight: 2 lbs.