Multi-media works of art by Nina Kuo-Lorin Roser, Toby Barnes, Jason Smith, Sayumi Yokouchi and Tim Evans are on view at the Plum Blossoms Gallery in New York in Psionic Distortion

Multi-media works of art by Nina Kuo-Lorin Roser, Toby Barnes, Kyung Jeon, Jason Smith, Sayumi Yokouchi, Tim Evans, and Jeremy Stenger are on view in Psionic Distortion, a group show of 30 young Japanese and International artists through Apr. 30 at the Plum Blossoms Gallery in New York.

Multi-media works of art by Nina Kuo-Lorin Roser, Toby Barnes, Kyung Jeon, Jason Smith, Tim Evans, Sayumi Yokouchi and Jeremy Stenger are on view in Psionic Distortion, a group show of 30 young Japanese and International artists organized by independent curator Tim Evans through Apr. 30 at the Plum Blossoms Gallery in New York.

Incorporating anime, manga and digital technology as means of expression, Psionic Distortion represents a flight of mythic grace into the recesses of the visual imagination and explores the pursuits of a diverse new generation of artists from Asia, Europe and the U.S.

In Japan's thriving artistic underground, manga (loosely translatable to English as comic books) and related modes of cultural production have served as catalysts for self-expression and powerful springboards into the polemics of 21st century nihilism and dynamism. The collected artwork in the exhibition taps the cool eclecticism and quiet subversiveness of the post-industrial epoch, wherein taste and sensibility frequently take the form of self-conscious or anti-heroic visions, and style is exemplified by colorfully surreal narratives, elliptical (and often expressionistic) drawings, and the radical use of dark lyricism and humor through gestural line and material texture. Working across an eclectic range of media that includes canvas, paper, fabrics, wood, moulded plastic, found appliances, chopped up motorcycles, and video, the artists of Psionic Distortion express a voraciously transgressive creativity that examines issues of self-doubt, social disillusionment, and a pervasive anxiety about the future.

In much the same way that jazz, blues, and hip-hop grew out of very specific historical situations in the United States and have consequently taken on vibrant new forms in various parts of the world (including Japan), Psionic Distortion demonstrate how products of Japanese popular culture have been dispersed and transformed throughout the West following the mechanics of new global distribution.

Plum Blosssoms Gallery
555 W. 25th St., Ground Fl.
New York, NY 10001
212-719-7008
Hours: Tues.-Sat. 10:30am-6:30pm
Sun. and Mon. closed
www.plumblossoms.com
Through Apr. 30, 2005