Aruta Soup is a Japanese artist and illustrator who has celebrated his return to Japan from London with a couple of solo exhibitions that have already marked him out as one to watch on the Tokyo art scene. His work is delivered in a pretty typical way for underground art, but it is his cunning mix of the Western psychedelic and Japanese pop culture infused otaku elements that make his work seem so relevant right now. Add to that his nice organic and obviously hand-drawn style that comes across well even when using digital media, that it is in clear contrast to so much of the digital collages that have been all over fashion in the last year, and you have a guy who I reckon you are going to be hearing more from very soon.
His exhibition took place in the beyond cool Abydos, which is the gallery space of Cannabis on Harajuku’s cat street which has help to locate his work in street fashion culture and is pretty much the most direct way of ensuring that everyone in Harajuku knows who you are.
Along with the exhibition, he also presented his Sushi Killer comic that sits well halfway between American comics and Japanese manga, and also his collaboration t-shirt line, but regrettably not his Silver Accessory collection produced with Sagara which I was hoping to see in person.
Join us for a look round at the various disciplines that make up the exhibition:
Love this painted marionette.
Blind – Acrylic and spray paint. This reminds me of trippy amateur manga I used to read in the 90s.
A functioning Tea-Pot I would be happy to have in my home.
His monotone ink drawings looking sharp on his t-shirts.
One of my favorite designs that I found digging through Aruta Soup’s sketchbooks.
Like I said before there is something consistently visceral and organic about his output.
If you want to see more from Aruta Soup then you have to read his blog here, which is conveniently bilingual and will give you a chance to look at some of these pieces in greater detail.
