Digital artist Japi Honoo - Japanese styled erotic art

Fabulous modern erotic art inspired by the Japanese traditional style. This is what I want to share with you in this post.

Copyright Japi Honoo

Japi Honoo (1968) was born in Central Italy and now lives near Venice but her relationship with Japanese culture and aesthetic is outstandingly strong, intimate and genuine and reflects in her artwork.

Art historically speaking there is a significant divide between the Western world and the Japanese. Whereas it was regarded as important for artists in the Western world to present images that were spatially correct, Japanese artists were instead concerned with colour, textures, patterns and producing very flat images. To the Japanese it was very much the decorative and aesthetic element that took pride of place.

This is also reflected in Japi Honoo's work.

Copyright Japi Honoo

This image for instance is a very successful modern interpretation of the traditional close-up motif of two lovers in a close embrace.

Copyright Japi Honoo

In this image eroticism is evident with the partial state of undress but the long bamboo stick can also be read as a phallic symbol.

Copyright Japi Honoo

This image remains in the tradition of the lady investigating herself which is so often a motif in traditional shunga artwork.

Copyright Japi Honoo

I think this image is interesting because traditional shunga images often show bunched, decorative kimono material and very little skin, apart from abnormally large genitalia. However, in her image, Honoo has used the kimono material in a see through fashion which is an interesting development on how we see the genitalia.

Older works of Honoo are perhaps even more interesting if you are into art which uses symbolism.

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This image which is called "Generate" of the woman entwined with an egg is so powerful and stunning in its simplicity. The cross reference between eros, creation and birth is powerful and beautiful at the same time.

Copyright Japi Honoo

Linking and using flowers in connection with erotica is a longstanding tradition which numerous artists use. Honoo's image leaves you wondering if the spirit of the flower is a woman or whether the essence of woman resembles a flower.

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I had to include this image - it is so strong. The figure cradling the new life in its arms is clearly a woman ... or is it? The masculine is strongly represented - which is evidenced by the phallic shape of the figure. The figure embodies the union of female and male and cradles and protects the result of that union.



Lastly I want to show you one of the most recent works of Honoo´s which is her "Ladyswan". This image is stylistically speaking very different from her earlier work. It still retains links with the Japanese style although it is far removed from the flat decorative work she has done previously.

Again Honoo works with themes not unknown to erotic in "Ladyswan". Animals and erotic is a whole interesting subject which I will return at some point in the future in my blog but for now let it suffice to show you this exquisite picture...

Copyright Japi Honoo

All images are copyright Japi Honoo and permission has kindly been granted for reproduction in this blog.

Click here for more information and to see other works by Japi Honoo.

Sam Winston "Birth-day"

"Now what´s this" you might think? Erotic? How?

Well, I want to show this picture to illustrate that erotic art is not necessarily directly concerned with showing genitalia and sexy poses. Good art carries a lot of thought behind it and is usually based on an underlying issue, theme, problem etc. which acts as the foundation of the work.

Birthday is created by London based artist Sam Winston and is a mark of the 100,000 new babies born over a period of 12 hours on the planet. The work consists of 100,000 circles. What a feat!

The work was never intended as a piece erotic art but that is what is so great about art. Sometimes people perceive something different than what the artist had in mind at the outset.

When I wrote to Sam and said that I loved his work because the piece also can be seen to document the results of numerous erotic encounters, he responded: "when I showed Birth day to a friend she said - think how many people are having sex right now ! I guess she has a point." So obviously I am not the only one, but this is hardly surprising considering how close sex and birth are to each other.

Birthday is a beautiful pulsating image - you can almost feel all the babies that have come alive over the past 12 hours. The image has a very organic quality, there's a liquid motion resembling a certain fertilising fluid intertwined with the circular shape resembling the ovum.

This is what Sam says about his work:
"Birth-day charts the 100,000 lives that come into being over the period of 12 hours on the planet. I drew a circle for every life born in a waking day.

"I find it interesting that we use numbers to quantify things yet once we pass a certain amount, scale slips away and it becomes incomprehensible. I wanted to understand what a 100,000 physically was – and for me that entailed marking out that number in pen. I soon realised the enormity of such a task – I hoped to keep up with 100,000 births over 12 hour ratio but within the first ten minutes I knew it was useless. As two children are born every second the hand cannot mark the event. In total it took over a month to chart one day of births.

"On completion I also realised I wanted to create the works opposite number – the amount of deaths within 12 hours. These are to be black circles on white – and there will be 70,000 of them. "

All three images are Copyright of Sam Winston and reproduced with kind permission by Sam Winston.

For more on Sam Winston´s other work visit samwinston.com