Profile

TARTAROS / kei hinotani
Contemporary artist/curator
Born in Kanazawa City, Ishikawa Prefecture　
As a figure prototype maker, he has created many prototypes for figure makers in Japan. In his 40s, a mystical experience through meditation led him to become a contemporary artist. He has exhibited a series of paintings and prints made of banknote material, idol sculptures, Automatic Painting, and meditative paintings on the themes of historical civilization and idolatry from a spiritual perspective.
His curatorial works include "VR Crafts: Today's Temple" and "Next Landscape," both of which utilize VR technology. Lives and works in Okinawa.

Solo Exhibitions
2017 "PULP FICTION" Rumpalumpa [Ishikawa].
2019 "KAMIGAMI - God paper" Kinosho Kikaku [Tokyo].
2020 "IDEA" Minnano Gallery [Tokyo].
2021 "Ukiyo" "IDEA Earth" Rumpalumpa [Ishikawa].
World exchange" GalleryTAGBOAT [Tokyo, Japan]
BABEL AGAIN" Contemporary Tokyo [Tokyo, Japan]
2022 "Ukiyoe Banknote 2022" Contemporary Tokyo [Tokyo, Japan]


Group Exhibition Art Fair
2019 ONE ART TAIPEI 2019 Taipei, Kinosho Planning
ART Malaysia Kinosho Planning
2020 TAGBOAT x Hyakudan Staircase Exhibition, GalleryTAGBOAT
2021 tagboat ART SHOW,tagboat art fair GalleryTAGBOAT
ART Beijing 2021 Beijing Contemporary Tokyo
Beijing Contemporary Tokyo
ART021 Shanghai Shanghai Contemporary Tokyo
Beijing 2022
ART TAIPEI 2022 Taipei Contemporary Tokyo
Warm Current" Xiamen Art Museum, Shanghai
2023 Taipei
Watch Just Looking China-Japan Han Art Exhibition
powerlongartcenter, Shanghai


Awards
2014 The 9th TAGBOAT AWARD, selected works
2014 TDW ART FAIR, Special Jury Prize. Imamura Yusaku Prize.　

Curated by
2019
VR Crafts "Today's Temple -Regeneration"
Planning, curation, participation of artworks
[Work provided by] Riyu Kim, Motoi Yamamoto, TARTAROS JAPAN tagboat Gallery [Tokyo].
2022
Post Imagine" ASTER [Ishikawa, Japan]
2023
Post landscape" ASTER [Ishikawa] 2023

◆Iconic art of the 21st century
I am transforming the most ancient art, idol art in the form of belief in gods and spirits, into art of the 21st century.
The works are composed of a myriad of ancient and contemporary symbols, varying from world art, mythology, subcultures, and contemporary monetary systems.
The synthesized works tend to be like riddles that even the artist himself cannot solve.
The 20th century was a time when God and science took turns. So what do people believe in in the 21st century?
Faith is transformed into societies, systems, celebrities, movies, games, characters, fashions, and lifestyles, which we consume and believe in.
The scope of what I see as idols is broad, and any object in which people have faith, such as nations or currency exchange systems, can be a motif as an idol.
The idols of the 21st century are also our mirror images!

◆Meditation
The tacit knowledge shared by humankind is still in the process of being opened up in our time, and as a means of disclosing it in creation, I conduct visionary and language sessions using self-hypnosis, meditation and channeling. The work takes on life through my communion with the world and the beings that appear in it.

◆Works and Expressions
The cartoonish expression of sculpture starts with drawing. With digital modeling and plasticine, I pursue a contemporary primitive expression.
The paintings express the vision of meditation on the borderline between figuration and abstraction.
Conceptual works focus on the relationship between visual creation and action as the starting point for the creation of the work.
The result is a progression of works that focus on the notion that the creation of a process produces a result as a work of art.
He expresses the process of creation of the world mainly by using banknotes, currency system, Ukiyoe and classical art of the world as materials.

◆Tartaros
Tartaros is the name of the Greek god of the underworld. It is a world where life is born and returns to the earth, which appears commonly in myths around the world.
It implies that although civilizations are separated in the East and West, they are united in the depths of the earth, and are symbolically connected by Tartaros (depths of the earth).
This is my symbolic name to show the fundamental power of art from a perspective free from modern individualism.