KENSUKE KOIKE
Fragmented Identity
«Photography is the color palette, where you can draw everything, using these colors to change information», to reverse the order of things and not let them only have the known form. This is the basis of the thought of Kensuke Koike, a creative Japanese artist who cuts, crumbles, crumples, shreds, overlaps. The result seems to surprise firstly the author, whose goal is creating a new matter from the real to arrive at the surreal. At times paradoxical. An ironic, surprising and never predictable poetic.
In Gibellina, he presents artworks composed of various components, pieces of human faces. The shapes are designed to be rearranged by the viewer, allowing them to create their own unique sculptures and interpretations.
Interactive works which explore the concept of identity, encouraging viewers to explore their creativity and engage with the artwork in a hands-on way.
The pieces also invites viewers to consider the role of technology in art, and how digital tools can be used to create new forms of interactive and engaging experiences.
BIO
Kensuke Koike (Nagoya, Japan, 1980) is currently based in Venice, Italy. Koike has exhibited nationally and internationally, including Postmasters Gallery, NYC, USA; The Photographer’s Gallery, London, UK; IMA Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, among others. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Venice and IUAV University, Faculty of Arts and Design, Venice.
Koike is a contemporary visual artist working at the intersection of photography, collage, and sculpture. In Dear Friend, Koike deconstructs vintage photographs or postcards to create new images by cutting, pasting and reassembling by hand. Many of his works visually transform in utilizing the approach of “nothing added, nothing removed” by rearranging pieces and parts, into something completely reimagined. Koike’s eye for the surreal reinvents found imagery into surprising and delightful objects. His “renewed” photographs challenge the viewer’s expectations with new associations that reveal humor, curiosity, absurdity, and beauty.