"Study: Osaka Kansai International Art Festival 2025" announces first wave of artists
Ron Mueck, Patricia Piccinini, Maurizio Cattelan, Kamagasaki University of the Arts and others will study "What is a human being?" in the year of the World Expo, which has the theme of "Designing a future society where life shines."
Study The Osaka Kansai International Art Festival Executive Committee ( within ARTLOGUE Inc.) aims to hold a large-scale art festival with the theme of "social impact," which means revitalizing culture, arts, and the economy and bringing social issues to light. As a pre-event to verify the feasibility of this, the Osaka Kansai International Art Festival has been held three times since 2022. Six months before the Osaka Kansai International Art Festival 2025, we will announce the first batch of 28 artists and groups.
Participating artists of Study: Osaka Kansai International Art Festival 2025 include Ron Mueck (Australia), whose works are far larger than life, creating a sense of discomfort in the viewer, Patricia Piccinini (Sierra Leone), whose works realistically express never-before-seen lifeforms that seem to have been created by cross-breeding, and Maurizio Cattelan (Italy), whose works are humorous yet evoke the contradictions of modern society. These works will be presented in collaboration with the German research institute "Institute fur Kulturaustausch, Tubinga," at the "Osaka Culturarium Tempozan" (formerly the Suntory Museum), a museum built by the world-renowned architect Tadao Ando, who is originally from Osaka Prefecture. The works will realistically express the form, contours, and texture of the human body or parts of the body, and will be presented as hyper-realistic sculptures.
In addition, in the past three Study: Osaka Kansai International Art Festival, NISHINARI YOSHIO, which has focused on the power of art and created diverse encounters in the Nishinari area, which is deeply connected to Osaka's history and industry, and is based at Kamagasaki University of the Arts and Kioku Handicraft Museum Tansu, will also participate in 2025, mainly in the Nishinari area. (See the table for other first-round artists.)
Study: Osaka Kansai International Art Festival 2025 is a "Study" project held at the Osaka Kansai Expo site in conjunction with the "2025 World Expo (Osaka Kansai Expo)" which will be held from April to October. In addition to holding the Osaka Kansai International Art Festival / EXPO PUBLIC ART, exhibitions, art fairs and art projects will be held at various locations in the Osaka and Kansai region, including the aforementioned Osaka Culturarium Tempozan, the Nishinari area, the Osaka International Convention Center Nakanoshima, designed by Kurokawa Kisho, Semba, and the JR Osaka Station area. In the year of the Expo, which has the theme of "Designing a Future Society for Life," we will consider "What is a human being?" Participating artists and venues will be announced as they are decided.
Main participating artists
*The photo is for reference only.
<Osaka Cultural Center, Tempozan>
Ron Mueck
Ron Mueck has been working as an independent artist since the mid-1990s, after working as a model builder and special effects man in the film and advertising industries for over 20 years. His hyper-realistic sculptures, made from silicone and acrylic, are often based on real-life models or maquettes made from clay. The major cycles of life - birth, illness and death - are his main preoccupation. Though they appear faithfully reproduced in minute detail, his works are not reproductions of reality; rather, they play with scale. Mueck's subjects, with their surreal details, are either much larger or much smaller than their life-size counterparts, challenging preconceived ideas about relative size and perceived distance.
Ron Mueck, Untitled (Man in a sheet), 1997
© Ron Mueck Courtesy of Olbricht Collection and Anthony D'Offay, LomdonPhoto: Joachim Fliegner, Bremen
Patricia Piccinini
Patricia Piccinini is an Australian artist who studied economics and painting, and works with silicone and plastic to create creatures that are halfway between animals and humans, or a combination of cyber technology and humans. At first glance, her hyper-realistic, deformed forms, with their hairy body parts and inside-out, sticky parts, seem sinister and intimidating. However, the artist imbues her hybridized creatures with a sense of dignity, making them approachable to the viewer. Her work raises fundamental ethical and moral questions about the value of life, exploring the definition of what may constitute life at the boundaries of nature, technology, birth, creation and death.
Patricia Piccinini, The Comforter, 2010
© Patricia PiccininiCourtesy of Olbricht Collection and the artist
Maurizio Cattelan
Throughout his career, Maurizio Cattelan has produced works that evoke the contradictions of modern society, directing acts that are considered provocative and fearless. The period in which he produced his works in the late 1980s and early 1990s coincided with growing political and social tensions in Italy. Cattelan was interested in the contradictions and cracks of modern society and the contradictions of petty bourgeois life, projecting a variety of topics into his work, from the desecration of the art system to Italian identity and history. After moving to New York, he developed into an internationally influential artist and produced a number of well-known works. Cattelan's important and representative works include the giant public sculpture "LOVE" (2010) in front of the Milan Stock Exchange and the provocative "America" (2016).
Maurizio Cattelan, Ave Maria, 2007
© Maurizio Cattelan Photo: Attilio Maranzano Courtesy of Maurizio Cattelan`s Archive and Institute for Cultural Exchange, Tübingen
Tony Matelli
Tony Matelli studied in New York, Wisconsin and Michigan, and then worked for Jeff Koons for several years. His work makes it seem as if gravity has stopped and time has stopped. The surreal technical perfection of his deformed sculptures and their arrangement into self-contradictory or surreal compositions accentuates the absurd. , his characters are caught in comically bizarre situations, sleepwalking, or getting run over by pianos.
Tony Matelli, Josh, 2010
© Tony Matelli Courtesy of the artist and Institute for Cultural Exchange, Tübingen
Kazu Hiro
Kazu Hiro began his career as a makeup artist in Hollywood, winning numerous awards in the film industry. In 2012, he shifted almost entirely to contemporary sculpture, focusing specifically on hyper-realistic sculptures. His background in special makeup effects informs his artistic practice, giving his work an incredible level of finesse. He strives to create larger than life-size figures using materials such as resin and silicone. His work oscillates between an extraordinary sense of intimacy and distance through the strategic appropriation of iconic artists and well-known figures.
Kazu Hiro, Andy Warhol, 2013
© Kazu Hiro Courtesy of the artist and Institute for Cultural Exchange, Tübingen
<Nishinari area>
Kamagasaki University of the Arts
The course has been held in Kamagasaki, Nishinari-ku, Osaka since 2012. It is run by the NPO Cocoroom. The town of Kamagasaki is treated as a university, and about 80 to 100 courses are held annually in various local facilities, such as astronomy, aesthetics, and choral singing. In recent years, due to the aging of the people living in Kamagasaki, the course focuses on memories and records and operates as a place for encounters and expression. It also conducts on-site courses at nearby high schools and junior high schools, and collaborative courses with Osaka University. In 2019, with the cooperation of Mr. Hasuoka, who has been digging wells for the Peshawar Kai, 700 people, including children, travelers, and refugees, dug a well with shovels while learning from former day laborers in Kamagasaki. The course is expanding its activities in the international art field, including the Yokohama Triennale, Arts Maebashi, and the Saitama International Art Festival.
Kamagasaki University of Arts Osaka Kansai International Arts Festival 2022 Exhibition View
"Study: Osaka Kansai International Art Festival 2025 First Round List of Artists and Organizations
Artist Name (Japanese) |
Artist Name (English) |
Years of birth and death |
Country (region) of birth |
Osaka Cultural Center, Tempozan |
|||
Duane Hanson |
1925−1996 |
USA |
|
John DeAndrea |
1941 |
USA |
|
Jacques Verduyn |
1946 |
Belgium |
|
Daniel Firman |
1966 |
France |
|
Glaser/Kunz |
1968 / 1972 |
Switzerland |
|
Tom Kuebler |
1960 |
USA |
|
Mathilde the Heijne |
1969 |
France |
|
George Segal |
1924-2000 |
USA |
|
Brian Booth Craig |
1968 |
USA |
|
Robert Graham |
1938-2008 |
Mexico |
|
Fabio Viale |
1975 |
Italy |
|
Carole A. Feuerman |
1945 |
USA |
|
Maurizio Cattelan |
1960 |
Italy |
|
Jamie Salmon |
1971 |
UK |
|
Kazu Hiro |
1969 |
Japan |
|
Valter Casotto |
1980 |
Italy |
|
Ron Mueck |
1958 |
Australia |
|
Sam Jinks |
1973 |
Australia |
|
Zharko Basheski |
1957 |
North Macedonia |
|
Marc Sijan |
1946 |
Serbia |
|
Evan Penny |
1953 |
South Africa |
|
Berlinde de Bruyckere |
1964 |
Belgium |
|
Tony Matelli |
1971 |
USA |
|
Allen Jones |
1937 |
UK |
|
Mel Ramos |
1935-2018 |
USA |
|
Patricia Piccinini |
1965 |
Sierra Leone |
|
Nishinari area |
|||
Kamagasaki University of the Arts |
2012 |
Japan (Osaka) |
|
Nishinari Yoshio |
|
Japan (Osaka) |
Study: Osaka Kansai International Art Festival 2025 Event Outline
◼️Study: About the Osaka Kansai International Art Festival 2025
This is an art event that will hold exhibitions, art fairs, and art projects in various locations in the Osaka and Kansai region, including the Osaka-Kansai Expo site, Osaka Culturarium Tempozan, designed by Tadao Ando, Osaka International Convention Center Nakanoshima, designed by Kisho Kurokawa, Nishinari, Semba, and the JR Osaka Station area, in conjunction with the 2025 World Expo, which will be held from Sunday, April 13, 2025 to Monday, October 13, 2025. Culture and Arts - Based on the theme of "social impact," which refers to economic revitalization and the emergence of social issues, the event will promote Kansai culture and art to the world using the Osaka city area, as well as international exchange through art, including projects in collaboration with institutions in Germany, Korea, and African countries.
name:
Study: Osaka Kansai International Art Festival 2025
Event period:
April - October 2025
venue:
Within the Osaka-Kansai Expo site, Osaka Culturarium, Tempozan (formerly Suntory Museum), Bay Area, Nakanoshima Area (Osaka International Convention Center), Semba Area, Nishinari Area, JR Osaka Station Area, etc. (as of September 2024)
Organizer:
Osaka Kansai International Art Festival Executive Committee
[Cooperation and support] * Previous results: Osaka Prefecture, Osaka City, Kansai Economic Federation, Osaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Kansai Association of Corporate Executives, Kansai Consular Corps, Osaka Convention & Tourism Bureau, Tatsuno Corporation, and others
General Producer:
SUZUKI Daisuke (CEO of ARTLOGUE Inc.)
・Official website and social media
https://osaka-kansai.art/
https://www.instagram.com/study_okiaf/
https://x.com/study_OKIAF
https://www.facebook.com/StudyOKIAF/