Poolside penthouses and supercars in the work of Yoko Honda

Date
9 February 2015

Although it’s a source of inspiration for a number of different creative types, Yoko Honda’s artwork channels the aesthetics of the 1980s more so than anyone else I’ve come across. Her digital paintings pay homage to the garish and the gaudy, channeling an era of affluence and excess. The self-taught artist hails from Tokyo but takes inspiration from the USA. “When anyone expresses the 80s,” she says, “there’s that element of Miami and California – you could say they’re the places that symbolise the 80s best (the place of the dream).”

Yoko’s a self-taught artist and has no formal training. She began her career uploading images of her graffiti to Instagram, generating increasing interest with each new image. In 2013 she was contacted by Australian skate company Afends to produce some designs and thereafter the commissions kept rolling in. Although she’s only been in the freelance illustration game for a couple of years we’re expecting to see great things from this purveyor of sun-kissed Americana.

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Yoko Honda: Untitled

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Yoko Honda: Untitled

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Yoko Honda: Untitled

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Yoko Honda: Untitled

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Yoko Honda: Untitled

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Yoko Honda: Untitled

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Yoko Honda: Untitled

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Yoko Honda: Untitled

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Yoko Honda: Untitled

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About the Author

James Cartwright

James started out as an intern in 2011 and came back in summer of 2012 to work online and latterly as Print Editor, before leaving in May 2015.

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