Works from Anomalia by Chikai Ohazama at VFA

 

Works from the Anomalia series by Chikai Ozahama are available at Vertu Fine Art.

 

This project by Chikai offers a powerful perspective on the world around us and the turbulent moment we are currently living through. If you look closely, the figures are unmistakably human-like, portraying individuals of varying gender, race, and nationality. 

 

Chikai gives us an expansive view into the chaos of the present, while simultaneously reflecting on the ways technology is shaping, disrupting, and distorting our reality.

 

Chikai’s practice stands at the forefront of AI and emerging technologies. His compositions are intense, packed with clashing and layered imagery that feels both overwhelming and intentional. He navigates the ever-evolving digital toolset with curiosity and control, pushing beyond surface-level aesthetics to explore how these technologies can be bent, broken, and repurposed in creative, unconventional ways.

 

In Anomalia, Chikai situates his subjects within dense clusters of people. From a distance, the figures appear to be either attacking, fleeing, or simply trying to survive. These images feel oddly familiar at first glance, but upon closer inspection, they dissolve into something far more surreal. Out of the bodies emerge fish: strange, abstract, aquatic creatures that reveal a second layer and complicate what we think we’re seeing. These hidden elements invite viewers to sit with discomfort and surprise, and to reconsider how quickly we categorize what we perceive. What seems human might be something else entirely.

 

The works are accompanied by a video series that introduces cinematic movement to the still images. These short, sweeping panoramas animate the compositions in unexpected ways, adding narrative depth and a sense of urgency. While the images offer an impression, the videos offer a story. And while video technology continues to improve in precision and realism, Chikai is drawn instead to its errors, its strange seams and unpolished artifacts. He finds beauty in the randomness and the glitches, reminding us that technology can be most expressive when it strays from its intended use.

 

Ultimately, these works reflect back to us the fragility and resilience of human experience. In a world where machines are rapidly replacing human labor, Chikai gives us a vision of human survivorship, one marked by bravery, chaos, and creativity. This work exists at the intersection of technology and politics, a collision that feels urgent and necessary in this present-day moment.*

 

Ohazama was raised in Tallahassee, graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1994 and went on to receive a PhD in Biomedical Engineering at Duke University in 1998. He is co-creator of Google Earth. Okayama combines his scientific expertise with his work as a visual artist, filmmaker and musician.

 

Chikai Ohazama currently lives and works in San Francisco.

 

---

 

July 16, 2025