Ota Fine Arts is delighted to announce Beyond the Surface, a group exhibition featuring works by Yayoi Kusama, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Masayasu Mitsuke, Yeesookyung and Hiraki Sawa. The pieces selected are all piquant studies of the artist’s hand as it touches the surface of the canvas, traces paper, gilds ceramic ware, or shapes mirroring glass into stunning forms.

With her most recent Infinity Nets, a long-standing motif the artist has wielded perpetually and painstakingly since she debuted them in the 1950’s, Yayoi Kusama allows accumulating “nets” to swell and ebb across the field of the canvas. She moulds monotone patterns into an oscillating and ever-changing topography of whites, greys and silvers. Vis-à-vis Kusama’s work stand the reflective facets designed by Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian. Hendecagon recalls Sufi symbolism and symmetry with dazzling contemporary relevance. With similar discernment, Masayasu Mitsuke’s fine craftsmanship experiments with the geometric possibilities of delicate East Asian porcelain traditions. The brilliant red of Mitsuke’s Akae enamel is underscored by Yeesookyung’s Flame drawing, as she traces and re-traces Korean paper with an almost spiritual austerity evoked by symbolic cinnabar. And finally, Hiraki Sawa turns video into an incredibly tactile experience, as he splices together stop-motion animated figures and miniature models into an entrancing, unspoken story. 

Ota Fine Arts is pleased to bring together these artists whose attention often lies beneath and beyond the surface, revealing formal dimensions that would otherwise go unnoticed. 

Image: © Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Ota Fine Arts