Born in Fukushima, Japan in 1994. Based in Fukushima, Japan, NKSIN creates artworks. He has exhibited his works mainly in Tokyo and overseas.
Born to a Japanese father and a Filipino mother, NKSIN grew up frustrated by a community that did not accept her multicultural background. His own experiences have led him to examine in his own way the social discrimination issues that occur in various communities. His work focuses on this topic. Discrimination of all kinds is reflected in the protagonist, who portrays it in a provocative and humorous way, and is juxtaposed with his own experiences.
NKSIN's portraits depict craftsmen, actors, musicians, painters, and other icons who created the culture of their time. By giving them contemporary clothing and everyday fashions and placing them in the present time frame, he coexists a sense of longing for and rejection of the past and present. The children in his works are depicted as innocent beings who are ignorant of a world overflowing with information, "I wanted them to symbolize the first time I learned something," says the artist.
NKSIN's spray-painting technique was influenced by the animation trend that prevailed in the United States in the 1990s. His works, which are completed by repeating digital and analog techniques, mix Renaissance techniques such as sfumato (a technique of applying transparent layers of color on top of each other) and perspective with contemporary animation and graffiti.
He has also added influences from Japanese subcultures to create a hybrid style. He seems to question the competitive social system while at the same time acknowledging that he himself is part of it, and creates iconic works as proof of this.
The figures in his works are blurred with the same flat gray as the background, rather than a clear skin color, and stand solemnly in a melancholic space. This unique color palette also expresses his sense of helplessness in the face of recurring social problems throughout history. His recent series of portraits of people without mouths is particularly provocative. The artist states, "If we didn't have mouths, the discrimination we suffer in this world might cease, and the rhetoric that comes out of our mouths is the source of discrimination." He said, "If we didn't have mouths, there would be no discrimination in this world.
Having experienced the Great East Japan Earthquake and living as an evacuee in Fukushima, tormented by misinformation and discrimination not only racially but also as a resident, NSKIN believes in the importance of restoring strength and courage to the values and culture that people had as they rebuild their lives, rather than restraining and regulating them. His work can be seen as an anatomy of our times in this sense.
Reflecting different times, races, and cultures, NKSIN's works are the result of his own multicultural upbringing; they are a way of affirming our place in the contemporary world and breaking down the various barriers that oppress people while interacting with society.