Kikooshi - Improbable Abyssal Creatures

Kikooshi was born in Marseille and left his home city in 2007 to settle in Quebec. Born in 1959, the self-taught artist has led a life steeped in art. During childhood, comics fed his imagination and kept his fingers busy. At 18, he discovered the potential of airbrushing and made hyper-realistic paintings. In his early twenties, he cofounded a graphic-creation studio for advertizing, which he managed jointly for 12 years. With colleagues, he produced a humoristic fanzine containing comics, illustrations and photomontages: 16 issues were published between 1990 and 1992. From 1995 to 2000 he ensured the Photoshop painting of two manga series for Japanese publisher Kodansha in Tokyo. In the 1990s, he started investigating computerized media and designed and produced CD-ROMs – and later websites – for large French corporations. Since moving to Quebec, he has kept providing web-design services. Having previously dabbled in sculpture from time to time, he turned to the art form more assiduously in 2010 with his highly original Kisushi collection, comprised of fish and other marine life forms with ever more expressive features. Kikooshi’s marine characters come straight from his imagination, without filter or analysis, in utmost raw spontaneity. In his youth, the artist tried to impress with solemnity and darkness to create lyrical avenging art, but he now expresses an opposite lightness. Creation occurs at the drawing stage: Kikooshi draws a multitude of fishes while thinking of nothing, listening to music or even watching television. The creatures that will be given life in air-dried modelling clay are those which, on paper, manage to put him in the best mood! A structure made of chicken wire and Styrofoam gives each work a reasonable weight, while an acrylic painted finish gives it vitality. The approach is simple but oh so delightful! Kikooshi invites us all to smile and have fun.

https://vimeo.com/131502791