Erika Kasuga Solo Exhibition 2024: UNDISCOVERED

Erika Kasuga Solo Exhibition 2024: UNDISCOVERED

Ebisu Hiroshige Gallery

May 28 - June 2, 2024 (11:00 AM-7:00 PM)

Opening Reception: May 28 (Tue), 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm (Free admission: drinks and light snacks will be provided)

About the Artist

Erika Kasuga (18) was born in New York in 2005. She began painting at the age of 3 and spent her childhood in the suburbs of Manhattan. In 2016, she moved to Shanghai due to her parents' work, and in 2018, she moved to Tokyo. While attending high school, she continues to create artwork and is set to attend the University of the Arts London this fall to study design.

Artistic Achievements

Erika has won numerous awards for her artwork, including five gold awards and regional championships in the Scholastic Art and Writing Competition, known as a stepping stone for emerging artists, including young Andy Warhol. She also won gold and silver awards in the state finals and was awarded the prizes at a ceremony at Carnegie Hall in New York. In addition, she was selected as the only Japanese finalist in the UNIQLO x UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) competition and is scheduled to have her work on a tote bag sold on the UNHCR website this year. Two of her works were exhibited in the special exhibition "Fresh Perspectives" at the Smithsonian-affiliate Morris Museum in the United States. Her work titled "Midnight Snack" was used as the main image for the museum's website and the main poster at the entrance to the museum.

Exhibition Theme

The theme of this exhibition is "Evolution, Birth, and Coexistence." Through the use of pen, paper, paint, canvas, and digital photography, Erika visualizes imaginary landscapes and the whimsical creatures that inhabit her mind, expressing the ever-changing evolution and coexistence of living things, specifically undiscovered creatures. The emerging lines and the free unfolding nature of her work explore the themes of life through imaginary beings and unknown territories. All the work being showcased is a manifestation of the natural spontaneity and "serendipity" that emerges in her artistic process.

Her exhibition features works of a multitude of imaginary, futuristic creatures inspired by prehistoric cave paintings and ceremonial art. The creatures represent parts of an ecosystem, as well as an ecosystem as the universe itself. The “act of living and dying” from ancient times into the present and onto the future is complex and constantly changing, a symbolization of what art is to her and how she wants to live her life.