A Ballpoint Pen,

is not an item I usually associate with fine art,

 but in the case of Shohei Otomo, it is the choice of the artist to use just that, above “Play-Station” (2019),

 “Flowers of Edo” (above) and “Heisei Gewalt” (below), both 2019, we actually featured the artist back in August 2013,

 on the 1st of May 2019,  Emperor Naruhito ascended the throne as the 126th Emperor of Japan, taking the nation out of the Heisei era and into the infancy of the Reiwa,

  Shohei’s latest body of work is named after that new era, and reflects upon Japan’s cultural transformation during the previous era with insightful depictions that expose Japan’s commercial and consumer culture,

if ballpoint is your medium of choice you can follow the artist on Instagram, it seems strange to think back to my school days, where we were not allowed to use a ballpoint pen in our exercise books, it was real ink or nothing at all, and now it is an artists first choice!