ARTIST

Mio Okazaki

Mio Okazaki / Hokkaido

STATEMENT

In high school I fell deep into professional wrestling, and after graduating from university I worked until 2021 as a reporter for Weekly Pro Wrestling, covering matches and handling art features; for the magazine's fortieth anniversary I designed the commemorative T-shirt. In wrestling and combat sports the audience surrounds the ring through a full 360 degrees, and what you see depends on your seat. Each seat, each viewpoint, holds its own beauty and force of the fight, and by expressing those many viewpoints through the methods of Cubism I draw out an appeal of wrestling and combat sport that photography and film cannot convey. Cubism, as represented by Picasso and Braque, is an old technique that holds the forms of a subject seen from many angles within one picture. I cross that with professional wrestling, sometimes painting in the cheering and the sound as well, filling the whole surface with a love of the sport.

PROFILE

Born 1995 in Sapporo, Hokkaido. After graduating from the Department of Visual Communication Design, Musashino Art University, joined the editorial department of Weekly Pro Wrestling at Baseball Magazine Sha, where she was responsible for the occasional series "Togei", crossing art with wrestling. She has since left the magazine and now makes many works with wrestling as their motif. 2019 Award of Excellence, graduation work, Musashino Art University 2021 Kenta Nakajima Prize and Liquitex Prize, 1st ARTIST NEW GATE 2023 Designed the 40th anniversary T-shirt for Weekly Pro Wrestling 2024 Designed the scratch T-shirt for METROCK '24 Made a work in collaboration with the Antonio Inoki estate

INTERVIEW / PV

WORKS

67 works

EXHIBITIONS