NANZUKA UNDERGROUND is pleased to present ''-scape'', a group exhibition featuring the work of Kozo KISHIMOTO, Hiroki TSUKUDA and Hiroko YAMAJI.
This exhibition gathers 3 young Japanese artists who each has his or her own personal approach to interpret expressions of abstraction and landscape representation.
Kozo KISHIMOTO was born in 1980 in Osaka and graduated from Seian University of Arts and Design with a Major in Arts and Design. In 2009, his works were exhibited at Wonder Seeds at Tokyo Wonder Site. Kishimoto's works depict abstract landscapes, using the subtle blending properties of oil paints in such a way that they look like watercolor. These landscapes remind spectators of some characteristics of ''Sansui'' ink paintings (Japanese ink painting that usually depicts landscapes of mountains and water). Some motifs, such as sheer cliffs, soaring mountains, smoking fog, and mountain streams, repeatedly appear in his paintings. Kishimoto's position is to try to capture the scenery in the landscape and the lyrical feelings linked to it. In this way, he revitalizes the technique of modern abstract painting by cutting off in fragments elements like memory, thought, time and history and then combining them.
Hiroki Tsukuda was born in 1978 in Kagawa Prefecture and graduated from the Musashino Art University, Department of Art and Design, with a Major in Imaging Arts and Sciences. He has already had two solo exhibitions at the gallery. Tsukuda often depicts landscapes and architectures with recourse to geometrical motifs that he puts in his screens as symbols. It is based on the idea of simple addition and subtraction, rooted more in his interest in designed compositions and tricks due to unconscious mistakes of human sight (optical illusions), than in the concept of Cubist reconstruction. As a result, his works are based on bringing out objects’ individuality, rather than expressing subjectivity. These painted screens aim to express dignity and solemnity. In this exhibition, we show recent artworks from the series of architecture paintings that will be displayed during the exhibition devoted to the architect Seiichi SHIRAI held at the Museum of Modern Art, Gunma, from September 11.
Hiroko YAMAJI was born in 1983 in Mie Prefecture and completed a Major in oil painting at the Department Arts and Design at Musashino Art University.
Yamaji is a highly-regarded young artist who has exhibited at ''Art Award Tokyo'', ''Gunma Biennale for Young Artists'' in 2008, and ''Tokorozawa Biennial of Contemporary Art Siding Railroad'' in 2009. It is clear that Yamaji's works displays her high style, which is expressed by a keen sense of color, a mastery of using black gradation, and bold and light brushwork. Based on her original aesthetic sense, she frequently introduces in her artworks figures to which we usually don't pay much attention, such as architectural structure and plastic clips of bag closures. Yamaji constructs rhythmic paintings by introducing such favorite motifs in landscapes. Her works eloquently display the pleasant relationship between daily life and beauty.
It emerges that the three artists we see here have the same fervor of their youth to take up great challenges and question art principles like classical landscape painting and abstract art, which dominated 20th century art. The unprecedented role that art must play has become more and more important everyday. Thus, imagination is considered the catalyst to drag the future to a globalized world. At the same time, new visions, which follow one another, emerge from cultural areas all over the world, from regions that were not regarded as important up to now. In this exhibition, we would like to pose a question. What kind of new values can arise from the cultural area of Japan? It would be greatly appreciated if this exhibition becomes the lever to propel these young talented artists toward the future.
