(Japan)
Usugrow began his own artistic activity by creating flyers in underground punk and hard core music scene in early 90's. Since then, he has been involved in various album cover designs for bands and musicians regardless of genre, art directions and merchandises, and also collaborating with lots of skateboarding brands and fashion brands.
Usugrow expanded the range of his activity and done several solo exhibition at art galleries in Japan and overseas since 2005, and published his first monograph. In addition to his solo exhibition, he has been curating the group exhibition and book projects with Japanese artists since 2009.
He currently works on mainly illustration, painting and calligraphy as well as live painting, collaboration project with other artists and three-dimensional artwork.
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With mind bending meticulous detail, Usugrow’s work crosses the line between bad ass and refined elegance. While developing his vision and technique, Usugrow worked designing promotional graphics for Japan's punk and metal scenes, Usugrows unique, stylized combination of traditional Japanese artwork and punk iconography soon made him the visual identity of Tokyo’s underground, But Usugrows’ global notoriety begun when overseas brands saw the potential for collaborative projects, resulting in a series of collectable products and feature articles in leading counterculture and art publications. A global cult following quickly resulted. As a conscious leader of his community, Usugrow has been using his fame to organize and promote a new Japanese art movement consisting of a tribe of highly talented artists with roots in the metal, punk, hip hop and tattoos, all of whom share his elegant aesthetics. This group, known as The Shinganists (The Outsiders) consists of Usugrow, Mozyskey, Toshikazu Nozaka, Bene & Jun Kaneko and have exhibited collectively and individually across the globe, representing a true and revolutionary art movement. Motifs of skulls and death are commonly depicted Usugrows black and white artwork, however instead acting as reminders our own mortality, Usugrow endeavors to represent them as symbols of rebirth and beauty. Toshikazu exhibited along side fellow Shinganist artist Usugrow at Backwoods Gallery in July 2011 backwoodsgallery.com for more information TOSHIKAZU NOZAKA : vimeo.com/29904721