Yuichiro Ando

Yuichiro Ando , is an American painter, Video Artist, and documentary film maker. He was born in Tokyo, Japan.

Yuichiro Ando is a Japanese painter who moved to the U.S. in 1980. He studied at the Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design where he earned his BFA. He also attended graduate school at UC Irvine School of Fine Arts and received his MFA. He has received several awards since.

While an undergraduate, Ando studied film and video art, leading him to work as a commercial producer and director. He has continued to create large size paintings for hotels and restaurants on a commission basis.

In 1997 Ando worked on a major documentary project on Hemophiliacs and HIV. The documentary he produced resulted in a $100 million lawsuit by the pharmaceutical companies. This event led him to quit producing documentaries and he concentrated on his artwork, painting again in earnest. Ando’s paintings are heavily influenced by the harsh realities he has encountered and experienced in documentary making. He captures the reality, filters it and then expresses it in the abstract. His paintings reflect his raw emotions and realistic views of life.

ArtStorm writes: "When Yuchiro Ando rose to prominence in the world of Japanese Investigative television news producing, he found killer stories to tell. Lots of them.

One story from his investigations revealed the alleged on-going contamination of blood supplies by donors who were HIV positive while the Japanese owned pharmaceutical company in Los Angeles knew of the problem but did nothing.

Another told of having a $100 million lawsuit filed by the pharmaceutical company against him and the network because of his television documentary. A bloody mess. Stories of the ensuing backlash, causing his name to be on the do-not-call list. Losing work. Stories of abandonment, depression, despondency, fear. A life changing experience. A Flash Point causing an explosion of art creation – a study in reds - words cannot describe.

“That period was about releasing pressure, like talking to a shrink," Ando says. “Problems got transferred to the canvas and are not on my mind.”

Artists of Ando’s breed are rare. His art is like the surface of an angry sea, it comes up on you fast and unexpected. It sneaks up on you. Then it hits you. It is big and visceral and it shouts at you. The art is extremely powerful. The art is for everyone, yet only visual artists who work in such volumes would really know what the depth of this art means or where it goes into the psyche.

Ando has had the kind of experiences few men have. Success – and inward traveling.

“After 9-11 I started getting calls again. I was assigned to produce a documentary on the war. I went to Iraq three times. I saw a lot of things there,” Ando says. “Reds…. The color red…A lot of red.”

This art is an important current statement in red by a man with the experiences of an international investigative reporter. Ando possesses a pointed intelligence of the human condition – taught by the flash points of reality experienced in the field. He is influenced by the tug and pull of the violence the East and Middle East and the West.

It is color and thought and bloody good art."

References

* [http://web.mac.com/andoyuichiro Ando web site]
* [http://www.artistsspace.org Artist Space NY, NY]
* [http://tv.yahoo.com/space-age/show/33732/castcrew Yahoo TV]
* [http://www.downtownartistguide.org/ Downtown Artist]