OCHI is pleased to present I Become a Yonsei, an online viewing room of new paintings by artist Kellen Hatanaka. The works will be featured on www.ochigallery.com from June 28 through July 26, 2022.

Exploring contemporary issues of xenophobia alongside personal Japanese Canadian experiences, Kellen Hatanaka amalgamates portraits of underrepresented athletes, suburban backyards and family memories, infusing his work with personal sentiment and a nostalgic view of his cultural upbringing. Paying homage to the historic Vancouver Asahi and Mikado baseball teams as well as overshadowed contemporary Asian athletes, Hatanaka comments on the longstanding effects of representation and its influences on marginalized communities.

Both heroic and humble, each painting combines traditional Japanese iconography, pop-cultural references, and misappropriated symbols—cherry blossoms, teapots, the yin-yang symbol, Kewpie mayonnaise packets—with faceless figures. Hatanaka decontextualizes to illustrate the power of context, merging visuals with forgotten histories as othered bodies and culturally specific objects enter a space of contemporary consciousness. Conjuring depth using flat forms, bold lines, and jarring perception, each work exudes the excitement and energy found in a live sports match, exploding arenas of color, texture, and heightened emotion.

Always questioning what might have been, Hatanaka blurs past and present. This strategy makes room for a discourse free of trauma and creates a speculative and hopeful vision into the future. Compressed into each painting, intimate memories, historical citations, and aesthetic references become vehicles to capture delicate moments of existence.

Kellen Hatanaka (b. 1987, Toronto, Canada) is a multidisciplinary artist who makes vibrant, figurative paintings and drawings that celebrate sport, design, history, and culture. His work considers race, tradition, and heritage as he explores the constructs of the sporting body and the nuances of Japanese Canadian experience. Hatanaka’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and has been featured in publications including Victory Journal, ArtMaze Magazine, and Graphite Journal. Hatanaka and collaborator Jon-Erik Lappano received the Governor General's Award for their book Tokyo Digs a Garden (2016). He is currently based in Stratford, Ontario, Canada.