Yusuke Hanai, Japanese artist, on his unsmiling cartoon figures that have become a social media and art market hit, and feature in his Hong Kong show Facing the Current
- Japanese artist’s biggest overseas show yet of his glum cartoon characters is set to open in Hong Kong. The figures represent emotions in the pandemic, he says
- The 43-year-old’s unhappy creations are popular with collectors, but he tries his best ‘not to pay too much attention’ to the art market, he says
Unkempt, unshaven, slouching men in baseball caps looking glum – Yusuke Hanai’s unlovable cartoon characters have become unlikely hits in this era of fear and hopelessness, and Hong Kong is about to see them up close.
The 43-year-old Japanese artist and dedicated surfer will unveil his largest overseas exhibition yet in the city this weekend.
The show’s title, “Facing the Current”, is a reference to the fearlessness of surfers, but there is no trace of that confidence in the show’s highlight: a sculpture of one of his dejected anti-heroes sitting in a boat with a dog as companion – an adult, Asian version of Charlie Brown and Snoopy.
Hanai says he has been there himself. As a twenty-something, he was hanging out with the surfing crowd near Yokohama but had no idea what he wanted to do with his life. He only decided to turn his childhood hobby of drawing into a full-time career after spending five years helping a friend design menus, billboards and posters for a cafe near the sea.
We’re all human, and I want to show that humans can relate to each other by showing emotions that don’t always involve happiness.
He had an epiphany when he stumbled upon an album cover designed by 1960s psychedelic artist Rick Griffin. It spurred him to go to California to enrol in the Academy of Art College in San Francisco, because he wanted to encapsulate Griffin’s artistic spirit through his own artwork.
Now based in Japan, Hanai says his characters continue to be informed by an eclectic range of cultural references, people and stories he came across in the United States: retro cartoons, beatniks, street fashion, Americana. But their miserableness comes from something more universal, he says.
