Samuraicat By Hiro Ando

Hiro Ando began his prolific career in 1995 in Tokyo, depicting its nighttime urban landscape. With a lot of inspiration, the streets proved to be an endless source of material for his narratives which often included the red fish in addition to the urban background.

The act of the red fish in his paintings greatly reminds us of the ancient Japanese watercolor paintings, thus making his work permeated with both a contemporary and traditional feeling.

With his artistic beginnings tied to illustration, he would draw several sketches before actually working on the canvas, and his practice has since spread to video material, digital support, and sculpture.​ Being a multidisciplinary artist, Hiro Ando had added sculpture to his portfolio, creating artwork that furthers his conjunction of old and new.

Built upon the traditional maneki-neko, standing for “lucky cat” within the Japanese mass culture, Ando constructs cat-like figures assuming various forms like samurai, sumo, and robot.

Their outlook reminds us of Japanese modern Manga, a world that influenced the youth of the artist profoundly, instilling Ando’s sculptures with a light, approachable line. Adding to it are the bright, often monochrome colors, and the smooth, shiny materials including resin, porcelain, bronze, and even diamonds, making his works representative of the contemporary neo-pop art.

The studio crazynOOdles was created in Tokyo in 2005 by Saori Nakamishi and Hiro Ando with the goal of organizing and promoting the creative activities of young artists of the new japanese pop wave. Since the very beginning, and to this day, the founders have given their artists total freedom of expression while at the same time encouraging group work methods to ensure the most creative artistic production.

The artists at studio crazynOOdles are able to fully support each other’s creativity in an atmosphere of mutuality.

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