I love Ginza and Ginza loves me. Fair Warning! Countdown: 5 Years

The sold-out exhibitions I recently held in Ginza brought me a lot of joy and satisfaction. Thoughtful, philosophical, and tactile visual experiences. The more I get involved with Ginza, a state of mind that can sometimes feel strangely tense, the more I like it. It’s not just because I practice in the center of Tokyo, ergo the beating heart of Japan.
Me: 「亜 真里男 ザ・銀座 油画家」”Mario A – The Oil Painter from Ginza”.
Interestingly, Ginza attracts more visitors and collectors than the solo exhibitions I held at “traditional” galleries such as in Aoyama, Shibuya, Nakameguro, Shinjuku etc..
There is no end to the reasons why I love Ginza. It’s international, cool, tasteful, stylish, crazy, anarcho, downtown, warm, mondaine, human warmth, delicious, charming, cheap, interesting, pink, expensive, luxurious, gorgeous, extravagant, traditional, proud, exquisite, and humble.
Wako, Mikimoto, Chuo-street, Matsuya, Itoya, Tiffany, cute bourgeois, safe and clean.
Ginza is perfume.
Hostess club, hostess-client adultery, Namiki-street, quality-oriented, high-quality handicraft, snobbish, sexy, Suzuran-street, sophisticated, multi-generational stores, brandish, cool design, Shiseido, cool design ambience, fashionable, Konparu-street, public bath, socialism, decadent, Kimono, Kabuki-za, out-of-fashion, post-post-modern, haute cuisine, reliable, cozy, dreams/hopes, literature, fiction, simulation, live house.

On November 3rd, the ‘Day of Culture’ in Japan 文化の日, starts my next exhibition 亜 銀座・コンセプト展：「隆・美智・真里男」(In English: “A GINZA CONCEPT EXHIBITION: ‘Takashi・Yoshitomo・Mario’”). Intertwined with works from my collection, I’ll be showing new oil paintings. Context as notion of eclectic juxtapositions. This time focussing on my peers NARA Yoshitomo and MURAKAMI Takashi. Provoking, caring and thoughtful in attitude. Curatorial east-west-philosophical practice from my side.

In the same context, my respected audience knows, that this kind of blending of Japanese and Western style 和洋折衷 is part of my raison d’être as a Japanese artist 亜 真里男 (Mario A), because my oil paintings exactly mirror this fusion culture.

A few years ago, I was able to hold two wonderful Ginza exhibitions, together with my works: After “Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita and INOKUMA Genichiro” came “AIDA Makoto and OKADA Hiroko”.

This March, mesmerising rumblings of war and ecstasy via the 亜 銀座・コンセプト展：「G・リヒター @ GINZA APARTMENTS」(In English: “A GINZA CONCEPT EXHIBITION: ‘G. Richter @ GINZA APARTMENTS’”) echoed throughout the streets of Ginza. Indeed, Ginza, including its dystopian moments, embodies a metaphorical fantasy city.

Obviously, the older you get, the less humble you become. How do I arrive to this conclusion?

Because you appreciate and recognise, via analytical, sharp, critical eye, via the extensive global art work experiences, via the multiple comparisons with different cultural environments, the art historical value of your created works in Japan.

Recapitulating, now with 65, I consider myself as one of the most important and influential contemporary artists in Japan.

Becoming part of Japanese art history, recognised as a pioneer in the context of “what does it mean to be a Japanese artist?”. “At what point, at what time, did the Japanese socialisation make Mario A a Japanese artist?”

Why do I feel and act like a Japanese person?

Since as a Japanese artist, I also carry 500 years of European oil painting history on my shoulders, the scope of my influential work takes on a fateful component of Japanese art history.

May I quote art critic ICHIHARA Kentaro “Mario A. An Artist of Japan as an Eternal Revolutionary” and the late art critic NAGOYA Satoru “Mario A, one of the most brilliantly gifted–or perhaps I should say, the single most brilliantly gifted––oil painting artist in Japan”.
美術批評家 市原研太郎 「マリオ・A　永久革命家としての日本のアーティスト」,
美術批評家 名古屋覚により「日本で最も優れた油彩を制作する画家の一人、いや唯一の一人」.

The Japanese art scene knows, that if circumstances allow, I am buying back my works from the collector and don’t allow to export my work outside of Japan. Means, if the owner of my work transfers to another country she/he has to return that acquisition.

Today, I am pleased to announce that I plan to end my artistic career in five years, when I will be 70 years old.

Because being proactive, creating new, radical, surprising, globally never seen works, involves a certain ethical responsibility, and in some cases, critically-wise, social engagement in the local art industry.

Why is that so? The answer lies in the following, for me crucial, eye-opening, carefully evaluating, my-love-towards-Japan-personal-existential, sentence by my former art dealer MIZUMA Sueo 三潴末雄 of MIZUMA ART GALLERY ミヅマアートギャラリー, where I had 3 solo exhibitions in Tokyo.

「君の作品が強すぎる。つまり、会田の作品が負けちゃうから。」”Your works are too strong. In other words, Aida’s works will lose out.”

As I love Aida, I left Mizuma.
This turning point in my career made me rethink why I love Japan.

In this sense: Fair Warning!
With 70 I’ll start to destroy my art works, publicly. Step by step. I am serious: Non, Je ne regrette rien!

The dear curator, who would like to organise a retrospective with me, should know that, depending on the delicacy / sensitivity of the themes and on the space in the public or private museum, approximately 10-30 body of works (Werkgruppen 作品群) are available.

If God and the necessary health conditions let me live another prosperous 5 years.

I’m almost fluent in Japanese, socially-wise very polite, “easy to handle” as a person.
Ginza, Mario A’s new artistic practice habitat.
Mario A in “Ginza 8 1/2”.
See you then on the ‘Day of Culture’ 文化の日.

Yoroshiku onegaishimasu.
宜しくお願いします。
亜 真里男 Mario A