🔷Simulacrum：Shohei Okamura Solo Exhibition

For the past few years, I have been painting pictures of faces that belong to imagined people. The series of works for this exhibition is titled "Simulacrum," which means a semblance not based on any original. And through portraiture of these autonomously existing, fictional figures, I am on a search for deeper meanings. I begin by using clay or similar to sculpt the form of the imaginary face to be depicted, make a mold from that to create a plastic or silicone model, and then add hair and painted features to complete my three-dimensional model. After that, I create photorealistic depictions of these subjects, thus achieving realistic paintings of faces belonging to people who do not actually exist. Today's world is filled with images of faces which resemble the real thing but are not, generated using technologies such as AI and digital filters. Through "Simulacrum," I have created such fictional realities by hand in a unique way, and the resulting faces provide us with an opportunity to contemplate the meaning of what it is to be human, and to be genuine.