TENGAone is one of Japan’s most distinctive contemporary artists. Recently his work has focused on the ideas of AI and simulacra, explored through material transposition. He transforms carved wood into hyper-realistic cardboard and paints it with graffiti and pop culture imagery, often conceptualized through AI. In his practice, layers of artifice collapse into their own authenticity: fake on fake becomes real.
He has held solo exhibitions at Kaikai Kiki Gallery (Blind Spot, 2018; More Than Meets The Eye, 2022), presented at Art Basel Hong Kong, Frieze New York, Taipei Dangdai, Roppongi Art Night, Beyond The Streets in Los Angeles and New York, and participated in Tokyo Gendai. His collaborations with Takashi Murakami, MADSAKI, SNIPE1, and ONEZKER, along with large-scale public murals across Japan and pioneering integrations of graffiti, pop culture, and conceptual strategies, have made him a key figure in the evolution of Japanese contemporary art.
SHDW Gallery will present あっぱれ！！エン坊① (Appare!! Enbō①) with TENGAone at Shintora Gallery, Tokyo. This exhibition will introduce a new character, ¥enbo (エン坊 / Enbō), an anthropomorphic embodiment of the yen. TENGAone already dwells in the space between reality and representation, and with ¥engel he will be able to interrogate how materialism defines our values and happiness. Welcome ¥engel, we look forward to what you have to teach us.
The exhibition opens September 11, 2025, with a reception from 18:00 to 20:00, and continues until September 21. An exclusive print will be released at the venue and online through SHDW Gallery, and a catalogue of new works will be available on request.
¥enbo is the newest character created by TENGAone, drawn from the yen symbol and given anthropomorphic form. It embodies the contradictions of value and materialism: cute in appearance yet exact in its critique, a charismatic figure through which TENGAone examines how societal values shape behavior and perception.
First introduced in sketches and in the NANAKUSE exhibition, ¥enbe now becomes the centerpiece of あっぱれ!! エン坊① (Appare!! Enbō①). As TENGAone’s Fabrication works transformed wood into cardboard to interrogate authenticity, ¥enbo transforms the currency sign into character form, extending his philosophy of material transposition into a new symbolic presence.
¥enbo is the newest character created by TENGAone, drawn from the yen symbol and given anthropomorphic form. It embodies the contradictions of value and materialism: cute in appearance yet exact in its critique, a charismatic figure through which TENGAone examines how societal values shape behavior and perception.
First introduced in sketches and in the NANAKUSE exhibition, ¥enbe now becomes the centerpiece of あっぱれ!! エン坊① (Appare!! Enbō①). As TENGAone’s Fabrication works transformed wood into cardboard to interrogate authenticity, ¥enbo transforms the currency sign into character form, extending his philosophy of material transposition into a new symbolic presence.