Base Gallery is pleased to present "animation," a solo exhibition of works by Atsuo Ogawa.

The support medium Ogawa uses varies from paper, blackboard, glass, wood even to soap, namely, to anything on which he can write and draw lines. Ogawa creatively applies various tools such as pen, chalk and needle depending on the support medium, and surprisingly the completed image is composed of just one line. Ogawa does not move his hand based on his intention in prospect of the resulting image. Rather, the line is involuntarily drawn leaving up to something inherent in his hand.

The line that makes us feel as if we could hear the steady scratching sound sensually tells us calm and tranquil clash between his hand and support medium. The line he draws evokes our desire to draw and depict. Along with such desire we once had, it calls back the desire for a small creation and urges us to move the hand without thinking. The cerated paper provides him with more resistive texture. Superimposed lines brought forth on pieces of paper in layers ingenerate unaccountable depth. They tempt us to move our hand more and awake something intrinsic in ourselves.

The work of Ogawa reaches somewhere deep and primitive in ourselves and silently induces resonance. The work of engraved soap presented at “MOT ANNUAL 2010 Neo-Ornamentalism from Japanese Contemporary Art” held at Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo attracted so much attention. Ogawa has also gained opportunities to present his works overseas in the past years.