Hideshi Yoshida - それでも挑戦者たちは、まだ見ぬ景色を目指して挑み続ける (Still, the Challengers Press On, Striving Towards Sights Yet Unseen).

Contemporary Woodblock Print

Yoshida drops us into the middle of his fictional X-Rock Climbing Race, where tiny challengers make their way across an impossibly steep landscape of sheer faces, ropes, ladders and temporary camps. Towering above them is the newly introduced NovorayZ2, an enormous articulated machine from FROSKEY, dwarfing the human competitors as it tackles the same course. The extreme perspective and extraordinary difference in scale make the title particularly fitting - however difficult the climb, the challengers continue upwards. 🤖⛰️

• Year & Edition: 2020 · Edition of 150 (signed, editioned & dated in pencil).
• Medium: Plank-grain woodblock (itame mokuhanga / 板目木版), carved on Shina Japanese plywood and printed on kōzo paper.
• Dimensions: Sheet H: 23.40 cm × W: 17.50 cm. Image H: 18.00 cm × W: 14.00 cm.
• Condition: Mint. Direct from the artist’s studio.
• Notes: This is the third of four FROSKEY works within Yoshida’s wider fictional world. Here, the X-Rock Climbing Race has begun accepting entries using the newly developed NovorayZ2, placing FROSKEY’s advanced machinery alongside the other challengers attempting the course. The print is a particularly good example of Yoshida’s wider world-building, where machines, companies, characters and events recur across separate works and gradually reveal connections between them.

About the Artist

Hideshi Yoshida (b. Hokkaido) is a Tokyo-based contemporary printmaker celebrated for his meticulous wood-engravings (木口木版) and vibrant woodblock prints. He transports viewers into surreal realms - ranging from charming animal scenes to visionary landscapes inspired by Lovecraft, Carroll and Stevenson - while centering his own Sci-Fi universe, Agnahuecom-Land, and the tech-driven mega-corporation FROSKEY Inc., powered by the mythical element Rabbitanium. Yoshida’s richly detailed narratives and fantastical precision have earned him international acclaim, with works held at the Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology (Poland) and the St. Nikolai Municipal Museum (Belgium). Kumo Arts is proud to showcase his enchanting worlds. [ ← View All Works by Hideshi Yoshida]