Up-and-coming contemporary artist Mantisuko has sold out a series of solo and group exhibitions and received more than 100 applicants for the lottery sale of 10 for 100.

Aiming to reconstruct beauty painting, Mantisko will present her new series "Kaika," in which she depicts flowers as a symbol of the beauty of mere existence. We interviewed Mantisko about her thoughts on her new works.

Mantiko Mantis

Mamiko Mantis is a contemporary artist who challenges herself to "reconstruct the beauty painting. She depicts human vitality through women.

She began her career as an artist in 2021. In August 2023, she participated in a group exhibition at GINZA SIX Artglorieux Gallery, a gallery owned by Daimaru-Matsuzakaya, together with Yayoi Kusama and others, and is highly anticipated in the contemporary art world.

In addition, seven of his works were exhibited in his solo exhibition "Do girls dream of Electric City?" at TRiCERA in the same month, two in the "Christmas Miracle" exhibition held in December, and nine in the "27" exhibition held in January 2024, all of which sold out.

KAIKA Artist Statement

Since ancient times, there have been many expressions that have used flowers as a metaphor for feminine beauty.

The world is based on the assumption that women play the role of a woman.

Kaika is a series of paintings that depicts the liberation from the "role" of beauty, which can be said to be a restraint of beauty, while using the motif of flowers and women, which frequently appear in beauty paintings.

The anonymous flowers, with little color and only emphasized outlines, are filled with beauty without artifice.

The work embodies "unbounded feminine beauty.

KAIKA #5

-In the "Kaika" series, you used "flowers" as the main motif, didn't you?

Yes, I have used flowers as the main motif in the "KAIKA" series. I want to depict the beauty of human beings themselves through my work, andI feel thatone of the factors that make this beauty possible is "finiteness.

As long as we are alive, we will always have a life span, but I believe that life is irreplaceable because it will end someday.
Similarly, "flowers" are ephemeral entities that bloom one moment and fall the next.
In the "Kaika" series, I aimed to express the beauty that emerges from "finiteness" by depicting both in a single painting.



KAIKA #6

-The flowers in the "Kaika" series are colorless, and the shapes of their petals vary. Is there a specific flower that you used as a model?

Actually, we purposely do not have a specific variety of flower for the "KAIKA" series.
Flowers have a fixed image, such as "roses are beautiful because they are roses" or "sunflowers are cute because they are summery.
But that is just what humans think, and the flowers themselves are in full bloom without regard to such things.

On the contrary, humans judge the beauty or ugliness of themselves and others based on standards set by others.
Especially for women, the ideal of "what a beautiful woman should be" has been unilaterally imposed on them.
I did not want to affirm these outdated standards when I set out to create "new beauty paintings.

Therefore, the flowers in the "Kaika" series are intentionally not colored, and the petals are changed in each work.
I challenged myself to depict "flowers" in whatever form they may be, as beautiful beings just by being there.

Beauty found in contingency

KAIKA #7

-The paint dripping from the petals is also impressive.

The depiction of paint dripping from the petals is an expression of the decay of the flower, and at the same time, it was created in pursuit of an expression thatcan only be achieved by hand painting.

I made the transition from digital to hand painting in 2023, and the biggest difference I noticed between the two is the degree of control I have over the painting.
On a digital canvas, you can change everything from the size of the work to the colors, but hand painting is different.
You can't change the size of the canvas in the middle of a painting, and you can't use color codes to determine the colors of the paints in detail.

However, there is an expression in hand painting that is arrived at by chance because of this inconvenience.
I believe this is the strength of hand painting, so I challenged the method of letting the paint drip under the force of gravity.

The brushstrokes that appear on each petal are the result of nature and can never be reproduced.
I hope you will pay attention to this aspect of the work when you view it.

To those who are interested in purchasing the "Kaika" series

TRiCERA is currently offering a waiting list for those who are interested in purchasing Mantidoko's works.

Customers who have joined the waiting listwill receive information about the "KAIKA" series and other series of works to be produced in the future, as well as the works introduced this time.

If you are interested in joining the waiting list, please send us a message from our official LINE with the name "Kamakiriko". Our dedicated staff will contact you individually.

The "KAIKA" series will be exhibited at the group exhibition in April and May.

The "Kaika" series works introduced in this articlewill be exhibited in a group exhibition at 9s Gallery by TRiCERA in April and May.

Outline of the group exhibition

Let Spring Meet You
Dates: 2024/4/13 (Sat) to 2024/4/20 (Sat)
Opening hours: 12:00 - 20:00
Opening party: 4/13 (Sat) 18:00 - 20:00
Last day: 17:00 CLOSE
Closed: 4/14 (Sun), 15 (Mon)

"UPDRAFT" Rising Artist from 100 people10 2023/24
Dates: 2024/5/18 (Sat) to 2024/6/1 (Sat)
Opening hours: 12:00 - 19:00
Opening party (invitation only):5 /17(Fri.)
Last day: 18:00 CLOSE
Closed: Sunday and Monday

Venue: 9s Gallery by TRiCERA
The Wall 3F, 4-2-4 Nishiazabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0031
Access: Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line Roppongi station 10 min. walk, Hiroo station 10 min. walk
10 minutes walk from Nogizaka station on Tokyo Metro Chiyoda Line
Contact: 03-5422-8370