Interview: This Watch-Loving Artist Just Opened A New Show In New York City

Japanese artist Madsaki is known best known for his contemporary takes on classic subjects and reinterpretations of iconic painting from across art history. He prefers spray cans to oil pants and bright, punchy colors to more muted shades. But he's also garnered attention for his paintings of special watches, including everything from old-school Seiko Pogues to Rainbow Rolex Daytonas. He's not just an artist and a watch collector, he's an artist who makes art about his watch collecting. Just last week, Madsaki opened his latest show at Perrotin Gallery New York. Hello Darkness, My Old Friend (I've Come To Talk With You Again) covers a range of subjects, including cigarette ads, street life in New York and Tokyo, classic album covers, and important moments in sports, to mention just a few. While there aren't any watch paintings in this particular exhibition, I still wanted to catch up with Madsaki at Perrotin ahead of the opening. I wanted to know about his artistic practice, why he's so obsessed with watches, and how he uses paint to communicate the things he can't put into words. Here's our conversation: Hello Darkness, My Old Friend (I've Come To Talk With You Again) at Perrotin Gallery New York. HODINKEE: Let's start with the big news: You're about to open Hello Darkness, My Old Friend (I've Come To Talk With You Again) , your first solo gallery show with Perrotin Gallery New York. What should people expect to see when they visit the gallery? Madsaki: All the paintings for this show are about my personal life. They're about coming to the States [from Osaka], growing up in New Jersey, experiencing 9/11 ... the '80s and '90s, where I built my personality and my character. Some of the paintings are kind of dark, but there's always a story behind it. It's just my personal life through paintings. I've got sports paintings, music paintings. Everything that made me who I am today. I was in Osaka until I was six years old, so I have almost no memories from there. I know I was a really quiet kid in Japan though, and when I got to Jersey I was bullied by the neighbors. I spoke no English. I had to draw to communicate. That’s what got me into art. I didn’t know before that you could draw and actually communicate something. Madsaki before the show's opening. Where does the title for the show come from? It was fun growing up in Jersey, but there were also a lot of dark moments because I'm Asian and was in total white suburbia. There were a lot of things going on. It’s about revisiting those moments, but not in a depressing way. Those things made me who I am. Also, when I was in elementary school, my dad was always listening to Simon & Garfunkel and that song, The Sound of Silence , with that lyric. When I first heard it and understood English, it just hit me. It was like, wow. It was a big moment. We’ve obviously got to talk about watches, too. How did you first fall in love with watches? When I was a kid, I think in second grade, my grandma bought me a digital Alba watch with Mickey Mouse on it. I would just look at it all day, playing with the buttons. After that, I got into Swatch watches, but it was only maybe two or three years ago that I got into mechanical watches. After my daughter was born, about 10 years ago, my friend gave me the Omega Speedmaster. I knew it was cool, but I didn’t know much more than that. Then I started really looking at watches. I bought a Seiko 5 so I could look through the back and see the mechanics. I wanted to start with the basics  so I could eventually appreciate the better watches. It’s a total addiction. Madsaki rocking his new Snowflake in front of one of his paintings. So what made you want to then paint watches? Time is moving us slowly as we speak, you know. It’s a big thing. And a watch, it’s part of my body, part of my schedule. It runs my studio and everything else in my life. But, if I die, the watch will still be ticking long after (as long as someone’s wearing it or winding it, or whatever). And that history I’ve had with the watch gets transmitted to the next generation. It just goes on, telling the whole story of a person and their history. I think that’s beautiful. And it has a definite connection to painting too. The paintings also remain after I die. Whether it’s a watch or a painting, all those memories I put in go on and on forever. I’m looking at this with a long, long lens. A sampling of Madsaki's watch paintings. You paint all kinds of watches, from vintage Seikos to Mil-Subs to Patek Philipps Grand Complications. Why that diversity? Is that intentional? If you look at my art, everything's so diverse. I don't have any sense of “You know, this painting's higher, this thing is lower,” and it’s the same with watches. If it hits me, that’s it. It can be expensive or not expensive. Seiko 5s are really playful. You get to mess around, enjoy it, and buy it. You can’t always do that with an expensive watch. I particularly love Seiko because the watches are casual and have a long history. I’m Japanese and in those early days with quartz watches they really messed with the Swiss psychologically. I love that history. A few of the watches in Madsaki's collection – note that two-tone Seiko 5 "Datejust." In an interview you did with Hypebeast , you said that perfect art is boring. Are perfect watches boring too? There is no perfect watch, and that’s why we can get so addicted. We always have to buy another one. We’re always looking for the next thing. That’s perfect. It’s not so good for the bank account [laughs], but it keeps you looking for that grail watch. Do you have a dream watch to paint? Right now I'm in the honeymoon stage with this Grand Seiko Snowflake, but if I painted it I think it would just be a white canvas! So I don’t think I could ever paint it, but I might want to mess around with it. I actually bought the watch in February on my wife’s birthday. I’m born in January, so I like the “snow” connection, plus this version was released in 2017, the year I joined Perrotin Gallery. I like those connections. My paintings are all rough and this was is total perfection. That’s a part of being Japanese that I don’t have at all. [laughs] Madsaki is best known for his "Wannabe" paintings that riff on icons and classics. Any other watches from your collection you really like or want to share? I like a lot of different things. I have a Seiko 5 that I really like that’s out of production but I found one brand new from someone who didn’t realize what it was. I got it really cheap. It’s a Seiko 5 that’s just like a two-tone Rolex Datejust. I don’t think Seiko was doing an homage on purpose, but I think there’s a lot of sense of humor in this watch. It’s a funny thing. Also, I do a series of paintings called the Wannabe paintings, my renditions of iconic images or classic paintings. In a funny way, this Seiko 5 is the Wannabe Datejust. I wear it all the time in my studio. What watch are you hoping to buy next? I’m always dreaming about the Lange Zeitwerk. I’ve always wanted that watch. In Ginza, I walk by that store about once a month and always want to go in and buy it, but I never do. You’ve got the digital numbers up front and then you look at the back and see the art and craftsmanship in that movement. Every time I see it I’m just like, “Oh my God!” With platforms like Instagram, we’re all surrounded by images all the time. Do you think there’s a hierarchy to images? Are some more important than others? To me, everything is just the same. There's no hierarchy or anything. It’s about each person relating to the images. You have some connections, you know, whether it’s a Marlboro ad or a Rembrandt. It’s the same thing. Also, I have to ask: Your Instagram account follows zero other accounts. What’s the story there? [Laughs] A lot of people ask me, and I always tell them I'm not an asshole. I didn’t do it to be cool or anything. You know, when you open up Instagram, it's just an overload of images, right? So if I follow someone, those images just keep on coming, but I want to choose what I see. So I just don't follow anything. If I want to see your stuff, I go to your account. It’s like remembering your friend’s phone numbers in the '90s. I know the accounts I like, and I get to look at them when I want those images. It’s stressful when you just have images coming at you all day. Really, I'm not an asshole. Hello Darkness, My Old Friend (I've Come To Talk With You Again)  is now open at Perrotin Gallery New York (130 Orchard Street) through June 5, 2021. This interview has been edited and condensed.Madsaki loves Seiko, covets a Lange, and thinks perfect art is boring.