A duo exhibition of Alex Besikian (FR) & Shingo Minamida (JP).

The show consists of a selection of solo works, as well as collaborative pieces made over the last months.
Based on the use of existing pictures, both artists rework those to create new forms through painting for Shingo Minamida & drawing for Alex Besikian.

A visual conversation that started last year, when Besikian discovered in Paris the Japanese Prints from Meiji Era that Government used as an educational tool to open the country to western culture. A dialog with Minamida that lead the artists to the will of sharing carefully selected old sources from Europe, America & Japan, linked to education and propaganda : school material, retro comic books and old advert posters.

Not only they crossed their points of view on each other culture,
but they also used each other 1st drafts as a new step to create the collaborative pieces presented at POL Gallery, Osaka.
With this graphical mash-up, sources are hardly recognizable but they’re not the point.
Shingo & Alex digested those original samples, by revealing a powerful and poetical energy that goes against the lethargy that they were supposed to incite.

POL GALLERY (OSAKA, JP) FROM JAN.28th to FEB. 12th 2023 [PHOTOS 1 to 6]
THE EXHIBITION WAS ALSO PRESENTED AT CENTER/SANUKI (TAKAMATSU, JP) FROM MARCH 10th TO MAY 7th 2023 [PHOTOS 8 to 10]