Taka Ishii Gallery is pleased to present “Cloud Shapes Made of Mud from the Sea,” a solo exhibition of Kyoko Murase’s paintings. The current exhibition, which will include approximately ten new paintings, is Murase’s first solo exhibition in three years.

I draw the cloud shapes, sand and the sea with the tip of my brush. I touch the canvas as if I was veiling it and calling faraway creatures.
- Kyoko Murase

Murase has charted new territories in her painting with each new exhibition. Her paintings, which depict female figures in various contexts such as in water, caves and forests, are characterized by her brush work, at once delicate and strong, and her unique composition, which creates the impression that figure and ground have reversed. In her recent works, which are backed by sophisticated technique, it is as if the painted elements resonate on the canvas in order to expand the possibilities of painting even further.

*image (left)
© Kyoko Murase
courtesy of the artist and Taka Ishii Gallery