Tokyo Gallery + BTAP (Beijing) is pleased to present Koji Enokura’s first solo exhibition in China, showcasing a total of 7 works from his “Figure” and “Interference” series produced during the 1980s and 90s.

Koji Enokura was born in Tokyo in 1942. After completing his graduate studies in oil painting at the Tokyo University of the Arts in 1968, Enokura presented his work at the 10th Tokyo Biennale (“Between Man and Matter”) in 1970. The following year, Enokura’s “Wall” received the Scholarship Award at the 7th Paris Youth Biennale, after which he continued to live in Paris for another year, holding solo exhibitions at the Neue Galerie der Stadt Aachen in the former West Germany and the National Museum of Art in Osaka, which earned him much international acclaim. Although Enokura passed away in 1995 at the age of 52 after devoting his life and artistic career to exploring the nature of materiality, his work has continued to draw a great deal of attention at several large-scale retrospectives held both in Japan and abroad. As a member of the Mono-ha movement, Enokura’s work was also exhibited at the “What is Mono-ha?” exhibition held at BTAP in 2007.

Enokura’s works are known for the distinctive techniques used to produce them as well as their commanding presence. Some of his most well-known pieces include wall-sized murals slathered with waste oil and his “stain” works, which consist of waste oil and acrylic paint on wooden panels affixed to cotton cloth. By focusing consistently on the relationships between objects and the sense of materiality that can be found in how the human body relates to these objects, Enokura’s work represents an attempt to deviate from the framework of painting. The pieces from his “Figure” and “Interference” series on display at this exhibition are representative works that explore how liquids seep into and permeate the objects they come into contact with. The stains in the “Interference” series are visual manifestations of the passage of time, whereas the wood affixed to the surface of these works strips them of their painterly qualities and strongly asserts their status as objects.

These works represent Enokura’s attempts to initiate a kind of dialogue with his chosen materials, portraying a world of liberated “objects” that are governed by a particular set of reciprocal spatial relationships. We hope you take this opportunity to view this exhibition.