L isted as Forbes Asia 30 UNDER 30 in 2021 and recently dispatched to New York by the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs, Etsu Egami is one of the most recognized artists of the third generation of the Japanese postwar contemporary art scene. Having spent most of her life travelling around the world, Egami spent part of her youth in the United States before studying at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, China and the University of Art and Design in Karlsruhe, Germany. Her frequent experience of language barriers and being an “eternal foreigner” is a major source of inspiration for her works.

As a ripple effect of the pandemic, miscommunication has been aggravated from a global to interpersonal scale through social distancing and frequent lockdowns. Untitled stems from Egami’s portrait series in 2021, depicting a large-scale unknown man executed with her iconic calculated applications of convoluted lines and shading. The diverse subjects in the series explore humanity’s unity and individualism in a world of social, political and cultural dissonance. Where language becomes an obstacle, endless creative possibilities bloom for the artist to evoke the pondering of anthropological language while simultaneously manifesting vehement and undisguised human connection.

Active in Japan, China, and Europe with sold-out exhibitions that garnered international recognition, her most recent shows Into the light... in Germany and 4000 Years of Dialogue earned her the Chiba City Art and Culture Newcomer Award. The curator of the Chiba City Museum of Art, Megumi Hatai endorsed her to join the VOCA Exhibition 2020 at The Ueno Royal Museum, an event considered a gateway to success for young artists, previously including contemporary darlings Takashi Murakami for the first VOCA 1994 exhibition and Yoshitomo Nara in 1997.

江 上越無疑是日本戰後當代藝術界第三代當中的翹楚，她在2021年被《福布斯亞洲》列入「30位30歲以下精英」榜單，最近更被日本文化廳派往紐約。江上越似乎一生都在世界各地游歷——少年時曾在美國生活，之後又到中國北京中央美術學院和德國卡爾斯魯厄藝術與設計大學留學。她常常經歷語言障礙，總是離不開「外國人」的身份，這些經歷成爲其主要的創作靈感來源。

疫情引起連鎖反應，社交距離的限制和頻繁的封控安排，使得溝通不暢的問題從全球範圍滲透到人際關係中，變得日益嚴重。《無題》屬於江上越2021年所作的肖像系列，作品展現她標誌性的創作手法，精巧地佈局綫條和用色，描繪出一幅大頭肖像，當中男人身份未明。這個系列有不同主題。作品在衆聲喧囂的社會政治和文化下，對人類的統一性和個人性進行探索。當語言成為一種障礙，藝術家便綻放出無盡的創作可能，令人思考人類語言的本質，同時展現出人與人之間坦率而深切的聯繫。

江上越在日本、中國和歐洲各地舉辦的多場展售會的作品均告售罄，可見她備受國際認可。最新展覽「進入光明……」（德國）以及「對話4000年」令她獲得千葉市藝術與文化新人獎。在千葉市美術館策展人畑井恵支持下，她參加了2020年在上野之森美術館舉行的VOCA現代美術展。這個展覽可謂是年輕藝術家直上青雲的通關之路，當今的藝術寵兒如村上隆和奈良美智也曾分別在1994年首屆和1997年參展VOCA。