I first came across m7kenji's work over 10 years ago now when he collaborated with TORIENA on the music video for her song "Pulse Fighter". Although I was pretty much instantly a fan due to the style and quality of his pixel artwork, as time has gone on he has become one of my personal favorite artists as his style and skills have progressed over the years. I've been to several gallery/exhibitions where his works have been on display, but his most recent "Pulse into Flow" (held at METEOR in Nishi Ogikubo) might be the one where I feel like all of the qualities I've come to expect from him were on full display.
When looking at m7kenji's pixel art as just an image, things like the image composition, detail, and object design make it instantly stand out against other works. He has a strong sense of pattern design, and knows how to make characters and other objects stand out against a detailed pattern almost effortlessly while not diminishing the impact of the background. His use of color is also unique in the space, as he does an unbelievable amount with minimal color per image. Often his work will be made up of 2 contrasting colors and yet the end result is just as expressive as something made up of a full range palette.
Another thing that's notable about m7kenji's work is the DIY mentality behind it all. Most of the new pieces on display at the exhibition are made of mixed media elements using wood, laser cut acrylic, and printing techniques, all of which are done by the artist himself. The standout pieces of this kind at the exhibition are pieces mounted laser engraved wood, which also features the same kind of pixelated details found in the core printed piece.
Other new pieces featured at the gallery include a bomber jacket and tapestry, both containing an elaborate black & white pattern printed all over, and canvas printed blocks placed over a wall sticker to complete a 2D/3D effect within the piece itself. Several of these pieces had already sold before I even had the chance to attend, thankfully most everything was available as some kind of print or sticker to be purchased.
In addition to his original art pieces, the gallery also played host to demos of a few games that m7kenji is directly involved with. The first is an original Game Boy adventure title called Gripture that he made independently in GB Studio. You'll need to be able to understand Japanese to play it, as it has its own story and many text clues on how to progress. I tried the demo out for a bit, and it's definitely a game I plan to play through on original hardware at some point. The title is available for download at itch.io.
The other game on display is a title called Motion Rec which is being developed at HANDSUM, a design company he works at (who also is responsible for our website layout). m7kenji provided the graphics for the title, which had the most recent version available to play at the exhibition. I had the chance to play it at Tokyo Game Show this year, and it's honestly one of the titles I'm most excited for in the upcoming year. It's a really fun puzzle platformer, that uses a motion recording gimmick to navigate your way through levels. You can check out more about it on the official Steam product page.
All in all, the walls at METEOR are full of absolutely brilliant pixel art right now and I can't urge anyone in Tokyo right now enough to go check it out. m7kenji's solo exhibition "Pulse into Flow" will be running through October 14, 2024.
