27/05/2026
Ayano Yamamoto paintings are displayed at the end of the exhibition close to the last character conceived by Shigeru Arai: MieuxNA.
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Y.A.:“Shigeru taught me two things in particular in terms of creation as an artist.
One is that he always put the quality first. High quality is fundamental. If you create things with high quality, people will know. Obviously you must also promote yourself. He wanted his toys to be considered as artworks because he knew that they were worth it. That’s exactly why we started our collaboration, because we wanted to show his works in art galleries and art fairs. He was trying to give new value to his works.
Now his ambition has been achieved but sadly he’s not around any more.
But I get back to the point, the quality always comes first. Without it, there is no next move.
The other thing I’ve learned from him is the importance of knowledge. He knew everything. Old films, music, cartoons that no one knows. I think that’s important for an artist to give a kind of depth to one’s work. It’s something that we can’t see but it definitely adds strength to the work.
Among little things that I know of him, I wanted to share these two things with people because I think that helps us to grow as authentic artists, whatever the genre is.”
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