AJ Fosik has created 12 sculptures that were delivered to 12 artists in Tokyo for a unique collaboration project, Beast From A Foreign Land. Unlike AJ’s normal work, these pieces are unfinished and can be disassembled so that each artist can customize each individual piece of the sculpture. The result will be a unique collaboration between a stellar list of artists in Tokyo and one of Portland’s most well known artists.

About AJ Fosik
Fosik grew up outside the industrial wasteland of Detroit Michigan. Deeply influenced by the Motor City's powerful traditions of underground music and culture, Fosik honed his artistic craft on the crumbling walls of the automo- tive industry, synthesizing the city's fury and raw spirit with its industrious past In the late nineties Fosik left Detroit for New York city to attend the Parsons School of Design. Once in New York he quickly formed the Rot Gut collective, and alongside KGBE began pushing the boundaries of traditional graffiti. Rot Gut specialized in handmade signage and elaborate outdoor installations, and were amongst earliest contributors to the burgeoning NYC street art scene. Eschewing the hype and mania of the street art racket, Fosik instead turned his attention to the woodworking he had learned creating signage. With a single scroll saw he began constructing elaborate and sinister beasts out of found wood, hand cutting thousands of tiny pieces and meticu- lously assembling them into his now iconic creatures. Fosik left New York City in an old pick-up truck with a motorcycle and a scroll saw in 2005. He began crisscrossing America, picking up odd jobs along the way from cab driver, to carpenter, to mechanic all the while honing his wood working and immersing himself in the oily under belly of American culture. Fosik continued to travel the country as his art rose to prominence and has lived on both coasts and everywhere in between. As his work and notoriety grew, Fosik began exhibiting his sculptures in galleries across the United States and he is now represented by galleries in New York, Paris, and San Francisco and has had successful exhibitions all over the world in cities such as Berlin, Sao Paulo, London, and Milan. Although hesitant to pursue commercial work he has collaborated on successful projects with companies including Samsung USA, Warner Brothers, Fage, Scion, to name a few. Fosik currently resides in the Pacific Northwest with his Wife Kristi and their son.

Participating Artists: Shohei, Mhak, imaone, Koichiro Takagi, Kaz, Madsaki,
yoshi 47, Ryuichi Ogino, Hiro Kurata, Tadaomi Shibuya, Usugrow, Tsuyoshi Niigamushi

*image (left)
courtesy of the artist