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Article: Tam Ochiai at team. (New York).
- Article from:
- Art in America
- Article date:
- May 1, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Brant Publications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Like his peers Takashi Murakami and Hiroshi Sugito, Japanese artist Tam Ochiai is influenced by pop culture, but his work seems more obsessed with childhood than theirs. At the same time, he is very much a painter, someone who is clearly comfortable with traditional art materials (pencil, paint, brushes).
Ochiai's third show at Team was titled "August" and featured large works on stretched canvas, most of which depict adolescent figures painted in a faux naif style. Their heads are positioned in the picture's upper center, and all have a dusting of freckles drifting down a vaguely feline nose. Evoking both Dubuffet and kindergarten drawings, Ochiai tends to ...