Ryo Hsu
Ryo, born in Shanghai in 1986, artist and art director, currently lives and works in Shanghai. He has served as the creative team leader of 4A advertising company, senior art director, fashion brand art director, and his design works have been selected by Tokyo TDC. In 2014, he started to create art outside of work. During this period, his works appeared in different exhibitions. In 2021, he will start a new creative path as an artist, and also conduct art direction and design work.
Ryo is a millennial influenced by comics and rock music, and his work is reflected in his work as he has been exposed to numerous commercials over the years in advertising and design. The artist understands art more as a process of self-exploration and learning, as his favorite artist Roy Lichtenstein said: “”The importance of art is in the process of doing it, in the learning experience where the artist interacts with whatever is being made. (The importance of art lies in the creative process, the interactive learning experience of the artist with the work in progress.)
The transition from surreal sci-fi works created by digital means to photo collages, hand-made abstract collages, silk-screen printing and now popular paintings from the early research on science fiction and the universe is also his constant exploration in his artistic career. manifestation.
In addition to painting, the artist has continued to record a large number of street photography for many years, whether it is all kinds of passers-by or city buildings, street signs, as long as he resonates with them, they will be recorded in his film camera or mobile phone. In addition, his love for pop culture is also reflected in his works. He will not miss baseball players, books, cars, vinyl records, and even a cup of instant noodles. It is precisely because he likes to observe store signs, street signs, and food packaging in supermarkets on weekdays. All these elements related to life and fashion have become indispensable materials for his creation.
Currently, most of his works are presented with boys as the protagonists. In Ryo’s pictures, we can see that he effectively discards the “”partial”” depiction, and effectively divides the canvas through flat painting techniques: such as the eyes of the characters The exaggeration of the mouth shape and the weakening of the mouth shape, and then amplify the hairstyle and dynamics of the characters themselves, and form a flat visual image. This kind of plain language expression not only strengthens the impact of the picture, but also extracts the strange, surprised, lonely and “”cynic”” boy from the schema structure. Just as the concept of CityBoy was first proposed by a Japanese men’s fashion magazine, it is not only a reflection of clothing style, but also a reflection of personal spiritual outlook. The boy image created by the painter represents a richer spirit and way of life-sensitivity to popular culture.