FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASETSUTOMU HARAGUCHI SOLO EXHIBITION

NEW-TYPE ADVERTISEMENT
Venue:HRD Fine Art(494-1 Kamigoryo-tatemachi, Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto)

Date:

September 9 - October 21, 2023

Hours:

Thu: 11:00am - 3:00pm
Fri & Sat: 11:00am - 7:00pm

Closed:Sun-Wed (available for viewing by appointment)

Closing Talk: “From TARO Special Award to now and beyond”
Tsutomu Haraguchi x Keiichi Ikegami (artist)
October 21 (Sat) 5pm-6pm*no appointment required/admission free

HRD Fine Art is delighted to announce an opening of Tsutomu Haraguchi’s solo exhibition
titled “New-Type Advertisement,” which will be on view from September 9th through October 21st,2023.
Tsutomu Haraguchi was born in Kumamoto in 1973. Almost a thoroughly self-taught artist,
Haraguchi had previously produced artworks based on comic-drawing techniques under a pseudonym“Art Horymen” for a long time, before reverting back to his real name in 2019, when he started working
on canvas and using oil paints and other “traditional” painting materials. Now he is energeticallycreating artworks, fusing marker pen drawings and oil-on-canvas painterly approach, where he touches
on such themes as image-ridden modern consumerist society and media environment, East-West
conflict and North-South divide in contemporary art, and center-periphery hierarchies. Not stopping
there, though, he also works on large scale installations based on local history and acts as curator toproduce exhibitions.
In this exhibition, Haraguchi will present paintings from his latest series “New-TypeAdvertisement,” which is an extension from his “Global” series that focuses on globalism and locality.
He incorporates all-too-familiar trademarks, logos, symbols, and mascots of international corporations
and brands, which already form integral parts of our modern life, into his painting and showcase it as
if to “advertise” those images. Boldly but cynically tracing American Pop-Art, this Japanese artist'sworks can even be seen as "landscape paintings" of our contemporary world.
Haraguchi’s art has been recently expanding its radius, from his native Kumamoto/Kyushu
to Asia and beyond. This exhibition marks his first solo presentation in Kansai region.

[ ARTIST’S STATEMENT ]I encountered a Campbell Soup can through contemporary art. I can imagine that it’s apopular product in the U.S., but living here in Japan, we rarely see and eat actual Campbell Soup
products: it’s definitely more about an artwork in a museum.
As I was pondering over this perception gap, one phrase just popped up in my mind:“Contemporary painting can function as an advertisement.”
The paintings I am presenting under the title “New-Type Advertisement” look over the
global human society, namely rockets, automobiles, hamburgers, bottled waters, clothes, rock music,
etc. They are literally a new kind of advertisement, which no one has commissioned me to create.
Tsutomu Haraguchi[ ARTWORKS ]PINK BRAIN □oil, acrylic, marker pen, gesso on cotton 61x46.5cm 2023

AI Sun and PINK BRAIN
oil, acrylic, marker pen, gesso on cotton 73x61cm 2023

GLOBAL SPIRIT 2023
oil, acrylic, marker pen, gesso on cotton 80.3x60.3cm 2023

red tongue
oil, acrylic, marker pen, gesso on cotton 65.2x50cm 2023

[ ARTIST'S BIOGRAPHY ]Tsutomu HARAGUCHI1973

Born in Kumamoto

Lives and works in Kumamoto
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2012“Horyman and Killer Whale” nap gallery, Tokyo / island MEFDIUM, Tokyo / Bambinart
Gallery, Tokyo

2015“BARAMAN/ANIMI-ZOOM” Bambinart Gallery, Tokyo / OralCare.Inc, Tokyo

2016“Jomon Onsen Smoke” Kiyoshima Apartment, Beppu

2018“arthorymen 2005-2018” Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto

2019“arthorymen 2019” White Space One, Fukuoka

2020“arthorymen2020” chu;jun, Taichung“Gate, Beam, □” Tsushima Art Center, Tsushima

2022“GLOBAL SPIRIT” AT Project, Taipei

2023“GLOBAL SCAPE” kaaf, Kumamoto

Selected Group Exhibitions
2014“The 17th Taro Okamoto Award for Contemporary Art Exhibition” Taro Okamoto
Museum of Art, Kawasaki

2019“Spiritual Landscape” Eureka, Fukuoka

2021“Spiritual Landscape ・○▲□” HRD Fine Art, Kyoto

2022“A Place for Us” overground, Fukuoka“3331 Art Fair” 3331 Arts Chiyoda, Tokyo“Kawashiri Alternative Art Fair” kaaf, Kumamoto

Residency Programs
2016-17

Kiyoshima Apartment, Beppu

2019

Tsushima Art Center, Tsushima

Selected Awards
2014“The 17th Taro Okamoto Award for Contemporary Art” Special Prize*****For further information or for artwork images please contact us:- Phone: +81-90-9015-6087- Email: info@hrdfineart.com- Website: www.hrdfineart.com