Madsaki's artworks are stupid. Stupid of course, in the best cackle-inducing way possible. In his latest solo exhibition "Combination Platter" (situated on the ground floor of Ploenchit's Central Embassy), Leonardo da Vinci's 16th-century masterpiece Salvador Mundi is now a beady-eyed Jesus. And Picasso's US$155 million (4.9 billion baht) Le Rêve -- instead of a tranquil woman napping peacefully on a sofa, she now has giant black button eyes and a dumb smile to match. Honestly, they're even more entertaining to look at than the originals.
Creating subversive artwork and taking on the masters in his own hilarious and unruly way, Madsaki (who wouldn't reveal his real name to the press "cuz I got a family, you know") in the past two years has risen to become one of the world's front-running contemporary artists.
Though many galleries and serious art critiques like to describe him and his art with big, convoluted words and concepts, Madsaki's works simply reflect who he is -- raw, energetic, and highly rebellious.
In "Combination Platter" which runs until June 3, there's a huge canvas with the words "Roses Are Red, My Balls Are Blue" in bubble letters. There's a 5m-long mural of beloved cartoon characters with Big Bird front and centre holding a sign that says "F*ck Off". Then there's his multiple remakes of classic artworks like Picasso's Guernica and Da Vinci's Salvador Mundi.
Salvator Mundi 2, 2017.
"I'm not interested in painting beautifully," he said in group interview before his exhibition opening last week. Like his artworks, the 44-year-old Japanese-American artist is a bright and colourful character, lacing his speech casually with profanities. "To me, ugly is beautiful."
Discovered by Takashi Murakami on Instagram after 15 years as a struggling artist, Madsaki started out by creating word art -- scribbling amusing profanities onto canvases with either paints or spray. With a push from a friend, he then went on to paint imitations of masters, but in his own style similar to his writings. He would sketch the exact composition and size of whatever master he's imitating, and then when he starts painting, "it becomes f*cked up".
"To me, 'F*ck Off' [on canvas] and Matisse are the same f*cking thing," he said with a hearty laugh. "There's no insult to Matisse or anything. To me, culturally, I grew up in a melting pot and I thought everything is flat and everything's the same. So it would be funny if I paint the masters as like using a slang word."
Born in Japan and moving to America when he was just six years old, Madsaki first learned how to communicate in the foreign land through drawing. And like any aspiring artist, he then went to study at the prestigious Parsons School of Design in New York City, and hated every minute of it.
"It was the first week I went to Parsons," he recalled. "Some professor told me no one's gonna make it in the art world. So if you don't want to waste money, quit now. The funny thing is, I'm doing what they told me not to do in four years. I'm doing exactly what they told me not to do.
"And I'm here [laughs]."
It did take a while for him to make it though. After graduating, Madsaki got so sick of art that he took a break for about six years. Evolving his style and going back into painting, he took another three-year break to become a bike messenger as he got sick of it again.
"Life is long -- maybe it's short, I don't know. I take it easy. I just don't like to suffer too much. I'm serious about art, but I'm not that serious."
But one thing's for sure: he loves creating art.
"It's such a fun thing. I hope that's the message [of this exhibition]. Doing art is fun."
