Exhibition

School of Visual Arts (SVA), New York City, and the SVA Japan Alumni Association present “Super Phat,” a multimedia exhibition that highlights the work of Japanese alumni and alumni living in Japan. Working in a variety of media, more than 40 established and emerging artists explore how their exposure to Japanese and American cultures has informed their work. The exhibition will be on view from September 12 through 29 at the Visual Arts Gallery, 601 West 26th Street, 15th floor, New York City.

The word “phat”—an American slang word for “cool”—in the exhibition title, plays off the word “fat,” referring to work that has adopted, absorbed, taken in, eaten and digested culture and has grown, extended and expanded because of that absorption. Forty-two artists—including ON megumi Akiyoshi, Chika Iijima, Takahiro Kaneyama, Kanako Sasaki, Junko Shimizu, Yuko Shimizu, Kiriko Shirobayashi, Yuken Teruya and Chiaki Watanabe—have produced illustrations, photographs, paintings, sculpture and video installations as result of this fusion between Japanese and American cultures. The exhibition is curated by Marshall Arisman, chair of SVA’s MFA Illustration as Visual Essay Department; Reà Sato-Manni, a member of the Japan Alumni Association; and Retsu Takahashi, a Japanese-American alumnus. The exhibition is organized by Elaine Chow, associate director of alumni affairs.

The complete list of artists whose work will be on view is: Kathleen Adair, ON megumi Akiyoshi, Asterism (Naoko Takemoto), Masako Ebata, Mihoko Hakata, Shisei Hashimura, Katsumi Hayakawa, Rie Hayakawa, Chika Iijima & Zach Layton, Kazuyo Inoue, Takahiro Kaneyama, Chie Machida, Scean Mitchell, Aki Morita, Yoriko Nagae, Kimihiko Nagase, Yuko Nakajima, Masayoshi Nakamura, Hiro Ohta, Kei Okada, Fumiyo Osawa, Mikiko Otaki, Kanako Sasaki, Junko Shimizu, Shungo Shimizu, Yuko Shimizu, Kiriko Shirobayashi, Reiko Sugitani, Miho Suzuki, Ko Takeuchi, Daisuke Takeya, Tomomi Tanikawa, Ai Tatebayashi, Yuken Teruya, Masako Toyoda, Miyuki Tsushima, Nao Uda, Mine Umeda, Chiaki Watanabe, Junko Yasumaru and Hiroko Yoshida.