[AX/AXNY] Gallery of Fantastic Art: The GoFA 9/11 Charity Auction Exhibition
Mike Tatsugawa
This year's professional art exhibition will feature an unrivaled
collection of art work from 7 prominent & cutting edge illustrators,
artists and character designers from Japan. TAKADA AKEMI, KIA ASAMIYA,
SHOU TAJIMA, YUTAKA IZUBUCHI, YUJI KAIDA, RANGE MURATA and YOSHITOSHI
ABE will all be displaying some of their most popular characters, many
for the first time in the United States. This exhibition will feature
lithographs, serigraphs and CG prints; 35 - 40 pieces total. Most all
items will be For Sale. All sales for the exhibition will be handled by
J.A.M. The exhibit will also include original illustrations & sketches
by TAKADA Akemi. This will be the first time that Ms. TAKADA has agreed
to sell her original artwork at an art exhibition.
Twenty pieces of artwork will be donated by GoFA to Anime Expo/Anime
Expo New York as direct donations for the 9/11 Charity Auction. GoFA
will also be donating a percentage from the proceeds of the art
exhibition sales to help the victims of 9/11.
Last year, Anime Expo raised money for the City of Hope's 'Heroes For
Hope' charity. This year, the proceeds from the both the Anime Expo and
Anime Expo New York auctions will go to helping the victims of the 9/11
tragedy.
Scans of the actual images can be viewed at:
http://www.axny.org/events.html#msg
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Introduction by Gallery of Fantastic Art:
When GoFa began planning the GoFa 9/11 Charity Exhibition, we were
overjoyed at the amount of cooperation we received from prominent and
cutting edge illustrators, artists, and character designers from Japan.
Now, we would like to thank you, the participants, for your support in
this endeavor.
This Charity Exhibition was originally the idea of Mr. Mike Tatsugawa.
After the tragedy of 9/11, Mr. Tatsugawa wanted to find a way to help
disaster victims and aid in the reconstruction of New York City.
Prior to this exhibition, GoFa had dedicated its art shows and
exhibitions to one artist at a time, focusing on only that artist's work
for a period of one year. However, this year, inspired by Mr.
Tatsugawa's idea, GoFa is presenting the works of seven artists - TAKADA
Akemi, Kia ASAMIYA, Shou TAJIMA, Yukata IZUBUCHI, Yuji KAIDA, Range
MURATA, and Yoshitoshi ABE - who represent the best and brightest of the
Anime, Manga, SFX, and Gaming Industry of Japan. GoFa is pleased to
announce that it will be donating twenty artworks (lithographs,
artgraphs, etc) to AX for the charity event.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank Ms. Hideko (Dinah)
Watanabe of JAM for her generous donation of artwork from her personal
collection. We would also like to thank Mr. Rick Alonso for his help in
operating this event.
We at GoFa pray for the reconstruction of New York City, and we would
like to give our heartfelt thanks to all of the people who gave their
time, energy, and effort to make this exhibition a success.
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Following are some previews of the works being displayed along with
artist backgrounds:
Yoshitoshi ABE
Yoshitoshi Abe was born in 1971, Tokyo. When he was a college student,
he started to publish Doujinshi, and won the Summer Contest of the
Afternoon Four Seasons in 1994. In 1997, he entered graduate school,
and began to publish the serial "Lain" in AX (Sony Magazine) in 1998. In
July of the same year, the TV animation version of "Lain" began. In
1998, he was in charge of design for "Wachenröder", a Sega Saturn game.
In November, the Playstation game version of "Lain" was released. After
his graduation in 1999, he began to publish the serial comic "NieA_7".
It was announced in the September volume of Monthly ACE NEXT, and
appeared monthly from October on. In April 2000, the TV animation
version of "NieA_7" premiered. Yoshitoshi worked on the jacket of the
sound track and illustrations, the jacket of the video and DVD version 1
through 5, the illustrations of the back cover, and the design of the
DVD case. The first version of Under Seven (Kadokawashoten) was
released. As an illustrator with a wide-range of abilities, he also
designed the cover illustrations of the novel The Genealogy of God 2 -
True Jaguar (Tokumashoten), illustrations for the Comickers
(Bijutsusyuppan), and the cover illustrations of the novel Don't Forget
(Kawadeshobo). The various collections of his works include,
"Furumachi", "Lain", Yoshitoshi ABE collection named "An Omnipresence in
Wired" (Sony Magazine), "Yoshitoshi ABE Edition NieA_7SCRAP"
(Kadokawashoten).
Kia ASAMIYA
Kia Asamiya was born in 1963. He made his debut with the comic
"Vagrants", which ran in the February volume of Monthly Comptiq
(Kadokawashoten) in 1986. He also extends his work to other areas, such
as covers of magazine and novels, illustration and animated films. By
the planning and production of STUDIO TRON, Kia Asamiya uses a mix of
media for his own works and is charting new directions in comics. With
his variety of talents, this super multimedia creator's currently
published works include "Steam Detectives" in Ultra Jump, "Dark Angel"
in Monthly Newtype, "Silent Möbius" in Monthly Comic Dragon.
Yutaka IZUBUCHI
Born in December 1958, Yutaka Izubuchi moved to Yokohama when he was
seven and lived there during his youth. He graduated from the Senior
High school of Yokosuga Gakuyin. He made his debut as mechanical
designer by "Daimos" in 1978 (without credit). His important works are
the mechanical design and design works of various animation such as
"Aura Battler Dunbine", "Panzer World Galient", "Mobile Suit Gundam:
Char's Counterattack", "Mobile Suit Gundam: War in the Pocket", "Mobile
Patlabor", "Gasaraki", character and the concepts for "Lodoss War".
After starting the illustration of "RPG Replay Lodoss War" in the
Monthly Comptiq (Kadokawashoten), he continues working on the
illustrations of the novelizations of Lodoss War and New Lodoss War.
Yuji KAIDA
Born in Hyougo, Yuji Kaida graduated from Kyoto City University of Arts.
He mainly works in the production of character illustration in the motif
of monsters and robots for magazines and packages. In 1997, Yuji Kaida
opened "Monsters Museum", which covered all his own works in Kawasaki
City Museum. Collections of his works include "Monsters Gallery" (Media
Works), "Monsters Gallery", "Meganix", "Works" (Bandai), and the CD-ROM
collection "Chronicles". Recently, he published Ultra Q
(Kadokawashoten).
Range MURATA
Range Murata's important works include software for "Groove On Fight"
(Atlas), "Wachenröder" (Sega), "Eternal Chain" (Victor) as well as
character design for the video series "Blue Submarine No.6". He is also
known for his novel illustrations and the cover illustrations of
Kailakuten and Ultra Jump. He has also done collections including "Like
a balance life", and has planned and edited "FLAT".
Shou TAJIMA
Born in 1966, Shou Tajima started publishing the series "MADARA" which
made him popular. He published a collection of artworks titled
"SHO-U". In 2001, the limited version of "MADARA" was released. He was
in charge of the character design of the Playstation game soft
"Galerians". Currently, his work "MPD?PSYCHO" appears serially in
Monthly Shonen ACE.
TAKADA Akemi
TAKADA Akemi joined "Tatsunoko Pro" after graduation from Tama Arts
University. There, she was in Charge of the character designs of the
popular animation "Urusei Yatsura". After working in the Character
Division for four and a half years, she went freelance. The various
collections of her works include "Creamy Mami", "Kimagure Orange Road"
and "Patlabor". As an illustrator, she also works on novel design and
novel illustrations.