Sorayama

“Art is supposed to surprise and shock, and the easiest way to do that is by breaking taboos”

Hajime Sorayama is a legendary Japanese artist renowned in the worlds of illustration, fine art, and industrial design. The father of the sexy robot revolution, Sorayama’s extensive oeuvre spans over 40 years. His impeccable airbrush paintings and hyperreal illustrations rightfully made him a pioneer of the sci-fi erotica genre. His visual signature, the "Sexy Robot" series (1978), established his worldwide reputation.

Hajime Sorayama’s art is exploring human sexuality, our relationship with robots, and our hyperbolized perception of beauty and desire. His robots consist of a notion of humanity and sexuality, underlined by the materiality of our contemporary world. He was also the main designer of Sony's "AIBO" robot dog in the late 1990s. Over the years, he developed his own unique style of ‘superrealism’. His ‘sexy robots’ made their way to some of the world’s most prestigious galleries and art museums worldwide, reigning a timeless legacy.

Sorayama's first art book Sexy Robot, was published by Genko-sha in 1983. For the work, he used ideas from pin-up art, which in the book then appear as chrome-plated gynoids in suggestive poses. His next book, Pin-up (Graphic-sha, 1984), continued in the same vein. A number of his other works similarly revolve around figures in suggestive poses, including highly realistic depictions in latex and leather. His pin-up work appeared monthly for years in the pages of Penthouse magazine, and Playboy TV later aired made a television special on Soryama's art. Sorayama said of his pin-up work: "That’s my mania. I’ve been drawing them since high school. Back then, there was this thing for the Playboy and Penthouse playmates. Now, it’s the girl-next-door, idol type, but in our day, these pin-ups were like goddesses. I guess I could describe it as my own goddess cult."