The Figurative Metamorphoses exhibition will be held at Tokyo Gallery+BTAP. The exhibition features works by three artists from three different Asian countries: Watanabe Yohei from Japan, Hang Chun Hui from China, and Ejaz Saeed from Pakistan. All three are painters who use the human figure as a motif in their works. This exhibition marks the first time that works by Hang and Saeed have been exhibited in Japan.
Watanabe Yohei was born in Nagano prefecture in 1976. Obtaining his master’s degree in education from the University of Toyama in 2002, Watanabe went on to exhibit works both in Japan and overseas. Watanabe’s 2007 solo exhibition, Weaving a Moment, was featured by Tokyo Gallery+BTAP in 2007, and in 2009 works by Watanabe were selected for inclusion in the VOCA (Vision of Contemporary Art) 2009 exhibition held at the Ueno Royal Museum. Watanabe makes use of early-modern and modern media such as acrylic, oil, and coloured pencils, layered one on top of another. The scenes and people depicted reflect the artist’s world view and perception of the human condition, and show us the metamorphoses undergone by people in the modern day.
Hang Chun Hui was born in Anhui, China in 1976. Having obtained a master’s degree in visual communication from the China Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2005, Hang went on to receive his doctorate from the Graduate School of the Chinese National Academy of Arts, where he specialized in modern ink painting of human forms. Hang now teaches at the Beijing Institute of Technology’s School of Design and Arts. Hang aims to create complex spaces in his works, and places an importance on painting lines on the canvas in a way that is conducive to this aim. Hang carries on a Chinese tradition of fine and elaborate painting while at the same time adding his own perception and style: the artist’s lonely grey, canvases express the melancholia of the industrial age and the depth of modern thought.
Born in Lahore in 1987, Ejaz Saeed graduated from the National College of Arts in Lahore in 2011. Saeed specialized in miniature paintings during his time as a student, and brings the techniques of Mughal miniature painting to his own works. However, the subjects Saeed paints in gouache on wasli are not ancient heroes or saints, but ordinary, modern day people. At the same time, the artist’s use of round frames gives his subjects an “aura” and an air of holiness.
Each of the three artists featured carries on a different cultural tradition, which he expands on to create his own style for depicting the human figure. The works in this exhibition reflect on many levels the thoughts of those of us who inhabit the common world that is modern Asia.
Courtesy of Tokyo Gallery + BTAP
