“The Second Stage at GG” is a series of exhibitions presenting more recent works by former finalists in the gallery’s open competitions launched to promote budding artists in various fields. The works shown in “The Second Stage at GG” exhibitions are all created after these artists entered their respective fields as professionals. The series features works by finalists in the original “Hitotsubo” competitions that ran from 1992 to 2008 or in the superseding “1_WALL” competitions started in 2009.

The 34th exhibition in “The Second Stage at GG” series introduces the works of artist Kenichiro Mizuno, who was a finalist in the 5th “Hitotsubo” Graphic Art Exhibition in 1995. His entry on that occasion was “Peeping Tom,” a series of works resembling individual frames extracted from a video. To achieve them, he used a video camera and photographed his drawings purposely out of focus or illuminated, then printed them on a video printer, and then made enlarged color copies of them. The result was a seeming cross between the digital and analogue realms.

From his childhood, Mizuno was strongly influenced by the Japanese animations he saw on TV. Later, he was impacted by cult movies and contemporary art. The animations he himself creates have neither a clear storyline nor any consistency, but here and there they show traces, déjà vu, of anime-like fragments from the past. Mizuno claims his works are intended as “SF” – science fiction; but more aptly they could be called “SF” – surrealistic fantasy, for they exude a unique presence that is neither TV animation nor contemporary art. They are increasingly coming to form a new genre: “animation as art.”

At this solo exhibition Mizuno will be showing his newest short animated films together with various “works” that came about during their production stages: for example, rough sketches, drawings, character design images, storyboards, original drawings and background images. Collectively, they will enable visitors to acquire a firm appreciation of the worldview of Kenichiro Mizuno.