【RENTAL EVENT】山田遼志個展「CITYNESS 2012~2026」

1987年生まれ、東京都在住のアニメーション作家。多摩美術大学大学院グラフィックデザイン専攻修了。文化庁芸術家海外研修員としてドイツに留学。株式会社mimoid設立に参加。広告映像業界などに携わりながら、作品制作を行う。アヌシー国際アニメーション映画祭をはじめとし、国内外で数多く上映歴を持つ。代表作にSaccharin / TONGO(2025)、Builder（2025）、Millennium Parrade/Trepanation（2022）KingGnu/PrayerX(2018)など。

CV

2011　多摩美術大学グラフィックデザイン学科卒業
2013　多摩美術大学大学院博士前期課程グラフィックデザイン研究領域修了
2018　文化庁海外派遣研修一年研修員採択 ドイツフィルムアカデミー交換留学
2020　株式会社mimoid共同設立

Filmography/Biography

2013　Waiter
2017　Hunter
2019　Firehead
2020 「短編アニメーションの〈いま〉を知る」特集上映
2021　The Edge Of Animation（アキバタマビ21・グループ展）
2022　KA/SO（Khu・コレクティブ作品）
2022　新千歳国際アニメーション映画歳メインビジュアル
2025　Builder（未公開）
2025　CITYNESS　LaLaLa,Brothers（個展）
2026　CITYNESS　2012-2026（個展）

受賞/主な上映歴
2026　ひろしまアニメーションシーズン　日本依頼作品部門グランプリ（TONGO）
2026　アヌシー国際アニメーション映画祭ミッドナイト部門入選（Builder）
2026　エトランジェ国際映画祭短編部門入選（Builder）
2023　新千歳空港アニメーション国際映画祭　ピッチ賞（寒山拾得）
2017　タリンブラックナイト映画祭短編部門入選（Hunter）
2017　アヌシー国際アニメーション映画祭短編部門入選（Hunter）
2014　文化庁メディア芸術祭審査員推薦作品選出（Waiter）
2014　アヌシー国際アニメーション映画祭学生部門入選（Waiter）
2014　イメージフォーラムフェスティバル　優秀賞（Waiter）

Publish
映像作家100人2013,2015,2023

協賛
mimoid.inc/ Johnny Walker/ Taguchi Factory/ (What it isNt)

Ryoji Yamada (b. 1987) is an animation artist. He began making works in 2010 while studying at Tama Art University and has since presented his films at numerous festivals in Japan and abroad, including the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. In 2018, he moved to Germany through the Agency for Cultural Affairs’ overseas study program for emerging artists, studying under animation filmmaker Andreas Hykade. Since returning to Japan, he has continued his independent practice while expanding into commissioned work, including music videos and advertising. His first solo exhibition, held in 2025, attracted more than 1,300 visitors in one week.
This exhibition presents screenings of the CITYNESS animation trilogy—Waiter (2014), Hunter (2017), and Builder, completed in 2025 and not yet released online—alongside recent drawings and other works.
Across these three films, Yamada has repeatedly explored how individuals come together within the city, giving rise to crowds, communities, and institutions that become entities distinct from the individuals themselves. A person becomes part of a group. Different individuals gather, generating cultures and movements that no one could have created alone. The collective, once formed, then acts upon the individuals within it. With the completion of CITYNESS, these concerns now extend beyond animation into drawing, painting, and sculpture.
Yamada’s practice begins with drawings that carry no predetermined meaning. As lines and forms stray from the artist’s intentions, in a process akin to automatic writing, images emerge. These images become points of departure for animations in which meaning is constructed through metaphor, symbolism, and allegory.
Yet the completion of a film does not mark the end of this process. The meanings constructed within it are dismantled once again and reworked into drawings, paintings, and sculptures. A line that has passed through animation never returns to its original state; it calls forth further lines and images. Evading meaning, creating meaning, and breaking it down again: this process continually calls thought itself into question. It is this cycle that now carries Yamada’s practice across multiple media.
Alongside the CITYNESS trilogy, the exhibition features new and previously unshown works, including large-scale drawings. Zines, posters, apparel, and other formats through which the work can extend beyond the exhibition space are also planned.
From animation to drawing. And once again, toward movement, the city, and the crowd.
Taking the completion of CITYNESS—a project developed over more than a decade—as its point of departure, this exhibition invites visitors to explore Ryoji Yamada’s artistic world: its history, its present, and its unfolding possibilities.

Statement
Through the act of drawing lines, I consider the relationship between the individual and the collective.
A single line retains the speed, tremor, and hesitation of the body that draws it. Even when I try to draw the same shape repeatedly, no two lines are ever exactly alike. When these slight differences are arranged in sequence, movement emerges from images that should be still. I have observed this phenomenon for many years through making animation.
Recently, my interest has expanded from lines arranged in time to lines accumulating in space.

I draw people one by one. At what point, then, do they become a crowd?
Each stone, each building, each body. As distinct things are repeated and accumulated, we eventually begin to perceive them as a single image. Perhaps crowds, cities, communities, and cultures also come into being in this way.
Yet a collective does more than erase its individual parts. When different things come together, they can generate movements and cultures that no individual could have created alone. The collective that emerges then begins to act upon the individuals within it.
I am drawn to this cycle, and at the same time I sense its dangers.
When do different things become one?
How much difference can remain within what has become one?
Moving between animation, drawing, painting, and comics, I try to draw this boundary.

About
Ryoji Yamada (b. 1987) is an animation artist based in Tokyo. He holds an MFA in Graphic Design from Tama Art University and studied in Germany through the Agency for Cultural Affairs’ overseas study program for artists. He co-founded mimoid Inc. and continues his independent artistic practice alongside work in advertising and other moving-image production. His films have been screened widely in Japan and internationally, including at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. Selected works include TONGO for Saccharin (2025), Builder (2025), Trepanation for millennium parade (2022), and Prayer X for King Gnu (2018).

CV
2011　BFA in Graphic Design, Tama Art University
2013　MFA in Graphic Design, Tama Art University
2018　Selected for a one-year residency in Germany through the Agency for Cultural Affairs’ overseas study program; exchange studies at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg
2020　Co-founded mimoid Inc.

Selected Works and Exhibitions
2013　Waiter
2017　Hunter
2019　Firehead
2020　“What’s Happening in Short Animation Today,” special screening program
2021　The Edge of Animation, group exhibition, Akibatamabi 21
2022　KA/SO, collective work by KHU
2022　Key visual for the New Chitose Airport International Animation Festival
2025　Builder (unreleased)
2025　CITYNESS: LaLaLa, Brothers, solo exhibition
2026　CITYNESS 2012–2026, solo exhibition

Awards and Selected Festival Screenings
2026　Grand Prix, Japanese Commissioned Films category, Hiroshima Animation Season — TONGO
2026　Official Selection, Midnight program, Annecy International Animation Film Festival — Builder
2026　Official Selection, Short Film section, L’Étrange Festival — Builder
2023　Pitch Award, New Chitose Airport International Animation Festival — Hanshan and Shide
2017　Official Selection, Short Film section, Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival — Hunter
2017　Official Selection, Short Film Competition, Annecy International Animation Film Festival — Hunter
2014　Jury Selection, Japan Media Arts Festival — Waiter
2014　Official Selection, Graduation Films Competition, Annecy International Animation Film Festival — Waiter
2014　Excellence Award, Image Forum Festival — Waiter

Publications
Featured in 映像作家100人 / Japanese Motion Graphic Creators, 2013, 2015, and 2023 editions.