Sorayama Gynoid, An Exceptional Futuristic Aura
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The talented artist, Hajime Sorayama was born in 1947 in Imabari, Ehime Prefecture, Japan. He received his basic education at Imabari High School, and in 1965, he was admitted to the Shikoku Gakuin University where he studied Greek and English Literature. In 1967, after publishing his first work, Pink Journal, he transferred to Tokyo’s Chuo Art School where he studied art. Sorayama graduated in 1968 at the age of 21 and gained an appointment in an advertising agency. He became a freelance illustrator in 1972.
Sorayama is often referred to as the contemporary imaginative Vargas by those familiar with his pin-up style works and is greatly respected by artists and illustrators for his perfect technique. Less known is that he uses his specially modified Kabuki make-up brushes, pencil, and acrylic paint, and airbrushing certain finishing details to create memorable hyper-realistic images.
In retrospect, Sorayama’s work has been remarkably prescient. Beginning in the 1970s and evolving into the 21st century, the futuristic aura of the robotic, mythical and fantastical figures in his art have always been ahead of their time. His arts appear to us in many ways each day and are available on the internet, movie, media, and books.
Starting in Japan, Sorayama’s arts breached our sub-conscious in the west during the mid to late 1980s traveling from the artist underground in Japan to the doorsteps of mainstream art in major USA venues in the early 1990s. One of his most important first visits to the USA was a coordinated series of art gallery project(s), meetings and efforts including an industry a seminar with George Lucas’ Mark A.Z. Dippé / Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) managed by the artist’s established representatives at Artspace Company Y, LLC in the USA and Uptight Co. LTD in Japan. His arts which are often appealing and shockingly aesthetic went into public collections of major museums, private collections and academia worldwide. A most enduring influential 2006 to 2008 series of meeting(s) came when Artspace Company Y first met Naomi Wilzig of the famous WEAM Museum in Miami area of South Beach, FL. This establishing Sorayama arts in the permanent / public viewing collection of WEAM in the area of Art Basel Miami Beach ( artbasel.com ) yearly events. Circa 2011, Sorayama and his same longtime recognized expert agent in the USA was called upon again by Lucasfilm LTD. This for the artist to create a series of sci-fi futuristic fantasy characters. The character arts went into the private collections of George Lucas who placed it in his comprehensive “Star Wars Concept” book published by Lucasfilm LTD in 2013, a time period when Mr. Lucas sold his company Lucasfilm LTD to Disney.
Sorayama started his illustration career in Tokyo painting Sexy Robotic forms, objects, and pin-ups. Intrigued by the effects of light on various metallic surfaces, and always ready for challenges to his technique and imagination, Sorayama began producing a series of female robotic and bio-robotic figures in the late 1970s; anatomically correct in form, but appearing to have been fashioned of molten silver. The term “Sexy Robot” was coined to describe his unique and exceptional works.
Sorayama’s art appeared in major magazines since the late 1970s, and in the 90s, Playboy TV Sextera and Penthouse Magazine featured his arts. Major art books were published from the 1980s including, but not limited to the hardcovers “MasterWorks,” “Vibrant Vixens,” “XL Masterworks ” released in 2010, 2013, 2014 and in 2015 or 2016 a soft cover “Sexy Robot Gigantes”; " XL Masterworks " is the most comprehensive high quality reviewed one at the time of this writing. It's available as collector pack on sorayama.net . " XL Masterworks " includes the works from the beginning to the time of this writing a portion of his arts that may be equally important in those that are fantasy / biography - historical in nature. These are maybe best described as a Sorayama imaginative form of Impressionism depicting real / fantasy characters of the past rather than future.
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