Draft:YAMAN NKYMN

YAMAN NKYMN ナカヤマン。 (1974-) is a contemporary artist based in Kyoto, Japan and Los Angeles, USA.

Born in Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. Outside Japan, he works under the name ‘YAMAN NKYMN’.

He studied chemistry at Kobe University, and began his career as a marketing strategist, working globally for leading fashion houses such as Louis Vuitton, Chanel, and Gucci. He also worked on the animation movie “Shin Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time” as the strategic director. In 2012 his work evolved, focusing on adapting fast-changing social behaviours into the creation of original content – entertaining, interactive, gamified, using algorithms to observe a communicative world and data collection, accelerating the process.

Following the principles of chemistry, YAMAN’s practice is a recodification characterized by a juxtaposed observation of the laws at play in both matter and society – invisible states, relationships, interactions, conditions before reaction and under equilibrium. From this dual, coupled perspective, YAMAN notices imbalanced states in society and turns his focus to the source of distorted definition, information transmission which defines the minority or ‘other’ under the concept "Information transmission and its (ingrained) distortion".

In 2021, YAMAN held his first major artistic presentation in a national architectural treasure in Kyoto, and one year later was invited to give his first global presentation as a part of the official program of Frieze Week Los Angeles 2022.

Since 2023 he has been the creative director of SABIÉ, a project from Urasenke, one of the main schools of Japanese tea ceremony, focusing on the fusion of an authentic tea ceremony and contemporary art. In November 2023, he held an exhibition “(Atomi:)WHITE2BLACK” at Hoshunin Temple, Daitokuji in Kyoto. He presented a work of relational art in the style of an authentic Japanese tea ceremony, and was joined by manga artist of "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure" Hirohiko Araki, contemporary artist Theaster Gates, and Raku Kichizaemon XVI, the head of Raku ware, the most famous Japanese tea ceremony pottery.

The company combines classical and modern culture and contemporary technology, and works on subjects such as minority issues.

Outlines

For 10 years, from its establishment in 2007 to 2017, he was the head of Dressing, a digital agency specializing in the fashion domain. In 2017, he founded and headed ‘screamlouder Inc.’ in Los Angeles.

He is an active planner of social media-based promotions and is regarded as a leading social networking strategist and a leading expert on digital measures.

Since starting content production work in 2012, the majority of clients have been international luxury brands, and the company has maintained a direct contracting and communication style for all requests, without involving an advertising agency.

In 2019, he participated in Shin Evangelion The Movie 𝄇 as a strategist; in 2020, he co-founded Hachiman-Noh Inc. with film director Hideaki Anno. As a result, the film surpassed 10 billion yen at the box office, almost double that of the previous film in the series. This was the first record for both the Evangelion series and a film directed by Hideaki Anno, making him the sixth Japanese film director to break the 10 billion yen mark. It was also the first film to break 10 billion yen for Toei, one of the film's co-distributors.

In February 2021, he began his career as a contemporary artist in earnest with his solo exhibition at the national treasure Hiunkaku, ‘(UN)KEEPALL’.

A sharp critique of the current social system, the film was produced in collaboration with the Nishi Honganji temple in Kyoto, Matsumoto Myoukei, a great Buddhist master who has continued the Kei school since the Heian period, and Tezuka Osamu, the father of Japanese manga/anime expression. Critical reviews of the film have also been published by manga artists Hirohiko Araki and Moyoco Anno, chefs Jinji Ishihara and Sushi Yoshitake, Masahiro Yoshitake, TWIGGY. Miho Matsuura, musicians Akira Senju and Shinichi Osawa and others.

The film was exhibited in Kyoto under a state of emergency declaration, converted to video data and toured many countries under the strong restrictions of the Corona disaster. The film was shown at a full-scale hijacking of a digital billboard at Scramble Crossing in Shibuya under a state of emergency declaration, an unattended screening at the Theatre Edward VII in Paris under lockdown, and at two locations where the film ‘Kill Bill’ was shot in Los Angeles.

In January 2022, the work “(UN)KEEPALL (1.0: 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0) 1.0” was edited from public activations in the Corona Disaster in various countries.

In February of the same year, the film was invited to the official programme of the art fair Frieze Week Los Angeles for a premiere screening, and a premiere dinner was held at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood. The film made its global debut just one year after its first exhibition.

In November 2022, he presented his work focusing on chakaiseki (tea ceremony), ‘Nenyear by year, people do it, but I can't see it, the demons in my heart have no direction to go WHITE-TO-BLACK 11062022’ In February 2023, he became creative director of SABIÉ, founded in 1992 by Masakazu Iju, second son of the 15th Urasenke master of the tea ceremony, Pounsai Iju. He was appointed director.

In November 2023, he held his solo exhibition ‘(Atomi:)Tsuina Black Setsubun / (ATOMI:)WHITE2BLACK’ at Daitokuji Temple Hoshunin, a relational art work based on the concept of ‘information transmission and its (submerged) distortion’, ‘Year by year, people do it, but they cannot see it, and the demons of their minds have no way of going WHITE2 BLACK 11072023'. The work, which had aspects of a Chabikai tea ceremony, used black tea bowls by Chojiro I and Nonko as well as celluloid drawings of Astro Boy from the 1960s and tea bowls, and was participated in by manga artist Hirohiko Araki, contemporary artist Sheister Gates, Raku Kichizaemon XVI, the head of Raku ware, and Kotowa Yamashina, the 30th successor of the Yamashina family. The exhibition was held at the same time as the Raku Festival.

Works

“POLYPTYCH - NOEL 2012” Commissioned by CHANEL (2012)

"POLYPTYCH - NOEL 2013” Commissioned by CHANEL (2013)

“GU TimeLine” Commissioned by FAST RETAILING CO., LTD. (2014)

"POLYPTYCH - COCO SHOOT” Commissioned by CHANEL (2015)

"From New York to Tokyo” Commissioned by GUCCI (2015)

"LAST PHOTOBOOTH - LOUIS VUITTON x Jake & Dinos Chapman” Commissioned by LOUIS VUITTON (2017)

"TAMBOUR HORIZON” Commissioned by LOUIS VUITTON (2017)

"THE ARCADE” Commissioned by COACH (2018)

“(UN)KEEPALL” Commissioned by Q/ (2021)

“(UN)KEEPALL (1.0: 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0) 1.0” Commissioned by Q/ (2022)

“WHITE-TO-BLACK 11062022” (2022)

“(Atomi)WHITE2BLACK 11072023” (2023)

Related works

“THE ULTIMATE OTHER” produced by Frieze Studios, in collaboration with Q/ (2022)

Career

1974 - 2004

• Born 1974 in Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. After graduating from Rakunan High School, he went on to study at the Department of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Engineering, Kobe University. After graduation, he joined a manufacturer, where he worked in the product planning department and also held the position of brand manager. During his employment, he attended the Globis Management School and completed the designated courses. Started VJ activities while working at the same company.

2005

• Left company at age 30, became independent; started working as a VJ and freelance marketer

2007

• Founded and became president of Dressing Inc. Fashion industry as a digital agency specialising in the fashion industry.

2008

• Social media consultancy work begins.

2010

• Joined Softbank Academia. Studied under Masayoshi Son.

2012

• Commencement of content production work.
• Commission work for CHANEL is undertaken.

2013

• Commission work for CHANEL is undertaken.

2014

• Handles commission work for Fast Retailing.

• Handled commission work for CHANEL.
• Commission work for GUCCI. Full jack-up of the Shibuya Scramble Crossing digital billboard, screening of video works.

2017

• Handled commission work for LOUIS VUITTON.
• Dressing Inc. completed. Establishment of screamlouder Inc. in the USA announced on WWD JAPAN.
• Handles global commission work for COACH.

2019

• Participation in the Shin Evangelion Theatrical Version𝄇.

• Hachiman-Noh Ltd. established with film director Hideaki Anno as co-chairman.

2021

• Begins working as a contemporary artist.
• February: Solo exhibition “(UN)KEEPALL”
• The work “(UN)KEEPALL” was presented.
• March Completely hijacked the digital billboard at Scramble Crossing, and screened the film in Shibuya under a declared state of emergency.
• May Jacked the Edward VII Theatre for a private, unattended screening of the film in Paris during the lockdown.
• July Screened the film at the American Cement Building in Los Angeles and the Kill Bill Church in High Vista.

2022

• The film “(UN)KEEPALL (1.0: 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0) 1.0” is released online.
• February The film is invited to the official programme of the art fair Frieze Week Los Angeles and makes its global debut with a public premiere.
• February Private premiere of the film at the Chateau Marmont hotel in West Hollywood. The premiere dinner was limited to 36 people and was associated with the 36 poets.
• May Frieze Studios releases The Ultimate Other, a documentary film about “(UN)KEEPALL (1.0: 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0) 1.0”, which takes place in the USA in 2021. The main theme of the film is Asian Hate.
• November Released work “WHITE-TO-BLACK 11062022”.

2023

• November: Solo exhibition “(Atomi)WHITE2BLACK 11072023” at Daitokuji Temple, Kyoto.
• Presented the work “WHITE-TO-BLACK 11072023”.