We've featured Susumu Kamijo unmistakable poodle drawings in the past over at Juxtapoz, last time about a year ago when he presented his work together with Koichi Sato at Bill Brady Gallery in Miami. As fans of the work, we were excited to see him releasing his first-ever sculptural piece in collaboration with Avant Arte, transforming one of his voluminous canines into 3D.

"This sculpture is loosely based on When She Returned, a drawing that was part of my poodle drawing series," Kamijo revealed the reference from which this piece was sculpted. "I always liked the movement, lines and shapes and the posture and attitude that the subject is presenting." This particular image depicts an elegant pink poodle with its head earnestly tilted towards the ground. Built from deconstructed elements, the drawing reveals the artist's playful approach to creativity, one in which an amalgamation of abstracted, colorful, stylized sections forms a glamourous poodle shape. Through the use of block color, disconnected forms, and intricate mark-making, Kamijo successfully assembles his nonchalant subjects, which are characterized by varied textures created through cross-hatching, repetitive patterning, and layering paint.

And while the surface of the drawings painted with a pastel pencil and oil pastel usually feature flamboyant surfaces that evoke playful affection, his canine portraits are finished with hard-edged, graphic style. This quality certainly came to life in his first sculpture made from walnut wood and oil paint with a matt protective coating. "I went to Susumu’s studio in NYC just before lockdown and I could not get the poodle figure out of my head after that visit," Christian Luiten, Co-Founder & Creative Director of Avant Arte said about how the collaboration was initiated. "I kept thinking about how amazing it would look as a sculpture. This is the first time we’ve created a sculpture based on a drawing  and I am super proud of how it turned out.”

The Sinner at Dusk will be available in an edition of 50 measuring 35 x 21 x 28 cm on Wednesday Februrary 17th on Avant Arte. "Creating The Sinner at Dusk has allowed me to explore how movement, lines, shapes, posture, and attitude come to life in three dimensions, and that has been really thought-provoking,” Kamijo sums up his debut experience in the world of sculpture. - Sasha Bogojev

Studio photo credit by James Chororos / Avant Arte