Kazuhiro Aihara

Temple Magazine

Can you introduce yourself and your work?

Kazuhiro Aihara

I'm Kazuhiro Aihara. I'm a digital artist. My career started in 2010 as a graphic designer. I was mainly designing Japanese advertisements, but at the same time I didn't stop making my own art. Since 2015, we have moved our activities overseas via SNS. I have worked with various cultures such as fashion and music. My style at that time was very typographically conscious. We were developing eccentric original fonts and wierd logotypes. There are also 3D graphic works derived from that typographic context. In 2021, I entered the world of crypto art (NFTs). Currently working as a digital artist of NFTs.
Here are two major series of works in recent years. All are made only in Photoshop.
As the name implies, "WET PIXEL" is a series of pixel drawings with water-like motion. Painting directly on the Photoshop art board, giving a very simple motion to the original layer style. There are numerous possibilities for layer-style motion. I'm hoping to meet a motion that no one has done yet.
"Bouncy Face Killas" is like an animation meme with a face motif. It can be said that this series is a reinterpretation of the historical motif of graphic design called smiley face. I paint directly on the Photoshop art board and give it simple(cheap) motion. What I expect from this series is happenings/digital accidents. I deliberately set motion keyframes, deliberately destroy visuals, and interact with computer generation to deliberately cause unintended glitches, color errors, and so on.

Temple Magazine

How did you start your digital paintings and how is it connected to your graphic design work?

Kazuhiro Aihara

My current digital painting style has been created through many years of thought and error. I have long pondered the question, "What can only I create?" The current style presupposes the Photoshop technique I developed when I was a graphic designer. The technique is created by interpreting the historical context of graphic design, contemporary art, and digital art in my own way.
I don't think I'm a person who can intuitively produce the sophisticated stuffs. It suits me to set a concept for myself, accumulate research, and carry out art activities strategically. This thinking is very graphic-designism . Designing the life of myself.

Temple Magazine

Has Nfts changed the way you produce and distribute visuals?

Kazuhiro Aihara

Yes. It definitely changed my life. I've been involved in graphic design through advertising for a long time, so I had to work especially in a centralized system. Creatives that I genuinely think are good were generally never adopted there. In short, many situations that always forced me to compromise afflicted me. I was desperately looking for a way to focus on creating visuals based on the concepts I set. Knowing that the world of NFT was built up, the technology of being able to have a decentralized system overwhelmed me. I dropped my first work around March 2021 and I can still concentrate on my own visual expression. The existence of the community is great. Of course, I am very grateful to the world of graphic design industry that has grown me. Thanks to that experience, I am now facing the question "what is NFT" and "what is my creativity".

Temple Magazine

How would you like to see your digital paintings exhibited in a physical space? Or is their place only in virtual space?

Kazuhiro Aihara

In a physical space, it enables a large size that cannot be output by a normal monitor. It's so fascinating that a large canvas is just as fascinating. Also, since it is a digital work, you can browse as much as you want in the virtual space, but by exhibiting it in a specific physical space, you can get the viewer's eyes to focus more on the work. Viewers may be able to make new discoveries by paying close attention to details that you wouldn't normally notice on a monitor. Great artists have a lot of fun ingenuity in every detail. In addition to digital, it is also possible to develop works that go back and forth between physical and digital. The ideas are endless. I think physical space is just as important a factor as digital space.

Temple Magazine

What are your references, what inspires you for creating your digital art?

Kazuhiro Aihara

I am a self-taught artist. I have never touched an art school. My inspiration is my own experience. That experience has been learned from many cultures. Fashion, music, movies, travel, sports, novel, business, outer space, ethnicity, spiritual world, etc. I try not to refer to actual art in order to make it. I learn the context of (digital) art, but not the techniques. In other words, I am conscious of staying away from academics as much as possible.

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