Mr. - The Otaku Art Master
Walk into Iwamoto MasaKazu’s private illustrated fantasy world of highly stylized exaggerated girls and boys characterized through innocent expressions, genuine surprise, and star gazing loneliness.
Mr. 's works on the surface capture a light hearted nature of youthful vibrance to them, also cast expressions of self conscious tones. Mr., who is by many accounts described as a self-proclaimed ‘otaku’ with a devout interest in anime and manga themes.
Though much of his work has provided an aesthetic bridge between a dark casted background undertones with a rough grimy street influence referenced through bomber/burner tags similar to that of Ikebukuro and Akihabara where Otaku culture thrives. His work has been inspired by the spaces and city surrounding him. He has been noted to carry his mobile phone among other cameras capturing it and using it for his work.
Mr. a former disciple of Takashi Murakami, where he worked under him for several years as an assistant later became a member of his Kaikai Kiki Studio. His work has spanned a broad range of media forms, from paintings, sculpture, video, and space. Mr. has become a force to be reckoned with in the international art scene. When Mr. was crafting his work in the 90’s and early 2000’s it simply wasn’t recognized as cool, but decades later and his work is the benchmark of what so many love today. It is a part of his proliferation that has weighed heavy on him as he never intended for this signature style to come of age. While the large part of his work is craft of each artboard, his signature element is the world within a world skillfully created in the retina of each character's eyes. Each one unique to the next.
It’s been argued by some that without the likes of Mr. there would not be a massive movement of more cute “kawaii” character Japanese painters that we see today. His work has transformed an era and will continue to do so.
The name [Mr.] is a pseudonym from famed and former Tokyo Giants baseball Legend Shigeo Nagashima commonly referred to as Mr.Giants.
