Giorgiko
Exploring human emotion through the eyes of childhood innocence
“Many of our characters are our explorations of ideas, representations of feelings, manifestations of our experiences – or just funny things that make us laugh.”
Giorgiko is not only an artist – it is also a universe. Masterminded by Darren and Trisha Inouye, the Giorgiko Universe is home to wayfaring girls and lost boys. Fantasy and sweetness are injected with a street-art, darker edge. They juxtapose the bold innocence of childhood with anarchist environments. The duo’s process begins with ideation between the two, often starting with Darren sharing ‘shower thoughts’ with Trisha. Trisha draws and redraws. She provides childlike sweetness – inspired by children’s books. Darren provides the paint, inspired by hip-hop and graffiti. Real people inform so...
Giorgiko is not only an artist – it is also a universe. Masterminded by Darren and Trisha Inouye, the Giorgiko Universe is home to wayfaring girls and lost boys. Fantasy and sweetness are injected with a street-art, darker edge. They juxtapose the bold innocence of childhood with anarchist environments. The duo’s process begins with ideation between the two, often starting with Darren sharing ‘shower thoughts’ with Trisha. Trisha draws and redraws. She provides childlike sweetness – inspired by children’s books. Darren provides the paint, inspired by hip-hop and graffiti. Real people inform some characters, while others are created as purely fictional. Fusing character illustrations, minimalism and classical painting style, the works are timeless – neither real nor surreal.
The Giorgiko Universe reminds us of our collective humanity and need for a home. The wayward adolescents are depicted as lost in both time and space. This disruption of time and environment is exaggerated by the diversity in clothing – from streetwear to Victorian suits. “Neither the clown... nor the ruff-wearing nobleman… are exempt from the experiences of love, grief, insecurity, or hope.” The recurring motif of ‘home’ in a crumbling world speaks to an overarching need for safety and comfort amidst the unknown. The theme is exemplified by the character’s age. The period of ‘adolescence’ notes a strange transition and uprooting in life – not a child, not yet an adult. Equally, the artists’ obscure use of light conveys an unknown passage of day and night. Not one or the other. Regardless of age, culture and period, all human’s feel. The inhabitants of the Giorgiko Universe remind us that we are all human, and all a little lost.
Giorgiko is the artist name for the creative duo of Darren Inouye (he/him) and Trisha Inouye (she/her), both born in 1989 in California, USA. The husband-and-wife team currently live and work in Los Angeles, USA.
The moniker ‘Giorgiko’ is a play on the artists’ middle names: George and Songyi. Giorgi means ‘farmer’ or ‘earth-worker’ in Greek, while ‘-ko’ is the Japanese suffix for ‘child’. The resulting meaning of ‘earth-working-child’ represents Giorgiko’s ethos of depicting emotions through the eyes of a child.
The Giorgiko Universe is home to many mystical dogs. These creatures sometimes play with human characters, but more often they're the antagonists. The artist duo includes these beasts to represent the wild and unpredictable side of human nature.
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