PAST EXHIBITION
“Post City Presentation by Post City Boy”
- Exhibition Information
Dates: November 14 (Fri) – November 30 (Sun), 2025
Hours: 13:00 – 19:00 (Open by appointment outside of regular hours)
Open: Wednesday – Saturday, and the final Sunday
Venue: CALM & PUNK GALLERY
1-15-15 Nishiazabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0031
At CALM & PUNK GALLERY, we are pleased to present Post City Presentation by Post City Boy, a solo exhibition by graphic designer and art director Shuto Otsuki, from November 14 (Fri) to November 30 (Sun), 2025.
Otsuki works extensively as a graphic designer and art director in fields such as advertising, packaging, visual identity systems for music events and museums, and public relations design. He is also active as a writer of essays and columns, known for his sharp critical eye on contemporary society as an observer of the urban landscape.
The term “Post City Boy,” which appears in the exhibition title, refers to one who observes the phenomena surfacing in urban and social systems, reexamining modern urban life through the structures of signs and information. Positioning himself as a “Post City Boy,” Otsuki transforms his experiences oscillating between representations and realities of the metropolis into visual works.
This exhibition features the “Drawing” series, which visualizes the structural relationships of codes and traces hidden within city infrastructure and everyday landscapes; the short story “Generic Days,” inspired by his own perspective as a graphic designer; and the inaugural issue of the “Post City Boy Magazine,” which includes the essay “New Melancholy,” exploring the quiet poetry in the smoothness and collapse of the modern world. Together, these elements reconstruct a perspective that reconsiders the current condition of the “Post City.”
Throughout the exhibition, special weekend events are planned, including talks with the Post City Boy, dinner sessions, and city walks.
We warmly invite you to experience this exhibition at CALM & PUNK GALLERY.
Artist Statement
Post City Boy Magazine is a visual magazine launching in November 2025. By examining the surface of the metropolis from within its own mechanisms, it reconsiders the question, “What, after all, was the urban (itself)?”
As the urban ideal comes to an end—and with it, the archetype of the “urban man” disappears—it remains difficult to detach from this smooth and seamless lifestyle. Yet the Post City Boy Magazine offers a rare kind of solace: a “fresh” gaze upon the urban experience.
The inaugural issue, edited and art-directed by Shuto Otsuki, centers on the theme “Presentation of Post City.” It includes the Drawing series focused on the design aspects of urban infrastructure sustained by signs and codes, the short story “I WANNA BE A MACHINE” based on his own persona as a graphic designer, and the essay “New Melancholy.”The exhibition reconstructs this first issue, offering an experience of re-encountering the urban within the urban.
— Shuto Otsuki, Editor-in-Chief / Art Director, Post City Boy Magazine
Conversations with Otsuki about his works and exhibitions are always fascinating. Perhaps it’s because his way of perceiving the world—rooted in his Tokyo upbringing—has its own strange premises. For someone like me, who grew up in the countryside and returned to Tokyo in my mid-twenties for work, his stance feels uniquely incomprehensible yet intriguing.
After years of dialogue, our discussions about Post City Presentation by Post City Boy began with even the smallest linguistic nuances—Is it Post_ City Boy, Post City _Boy, or Post_City_Boy? Perhaps Post◯City Boy? In the end, it doesn’t matter. Within Otsuki’s world, which fully embraces the “deliberate” and the “ironic,” something new is surely emerging. At this intersection called CALM & PUNK GALLERY, I look forward to sensing the spirit of the times in this fleeting encounter between the young and the old.
Curator’s Note – Shinjiro Nishino, CALM & PUNK GALLERY
Artist Profile
Post City Boy Magazine
A visual magazine launching in 2025 that aims to foster global communication. It reexamines the question “What, after all, was the urban (itself)?” by viewing the surface of the metropolis from within its structures.
Shuto Otsuki
Editor-in-Chief / Art Director, Post City Boy Magazine
Born in Tokyo in 1996. Graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts, Graduate School of Design, Department of Visual Communication Design. Works as a graphic designer and art director under the moniker “Post City Boy,” observing and interpreting urban phenomena. Clients include the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, AVEX, Mitsubishi Corporation, Tokyo University of the Arts, and Tokyo Biennale. Also active as an essayist and columnist.
