イントロダクション
Introduction

Tomoo Gokita started out his artistic career in illustration, garnering inspiration from 1960s and 1970s American subculture, underground magazines and photography. His innovative ideas and his technique of freely constructing his pictures as if he were creating a collage form the starting point not only for his early drawing work, but for all of Gokita’s most notable creations up to the present day.
His works, rendered primarily in a monochrome palette, radiate a sense of the myriad possibilities born of the diverse expressive means at his disposal. Carefully calculated use of gradation and shadows create a slick, fashionable allure, the contrast between simple lines and irregular, distorted shapes provide humorousness and nostalgia, and the journeys between the representational and the abstract give his imagery a powerful ambivalence. In particular, the suggestive and mysterious images and situations he chooses help catalyse the possibilities inherent in his visual argot, appealing irresistibly to the viewers’ imaginations and beckoning them inside his unique world.