KOSAKU KANECHIKA is pleased to present “Today’s”, a solo exhibition of new works by Yutaka Aoki, opening on Saturday 9th March 2019.

 

Yutaka Aoki attempts to broaden perspectives on painting by exploring the relationship between the world and painting, and its possibilities. What does it mean to paint? What can be done in order to paint? In pursuit of such knowledge Aoki has employed sculptures, working with painting as if to create sculpture, and with sculpture as if to create painting. He has also experimented with various approaches in relation to the movements of viewers’ eyes, and to investigate questions of the material and the spiritual: such as creating exhibition spaces that combine paintings and sculptures, including paintings conspicuous for their aspects of material substantiality, or introducing spiral structures into his work.

 

Throughout his multifaceted practice, Aoki maintains a consistent focus on light. Light has been one of the major themes of painting throughout its long history, but Aoki focuses on its three-dimensional manifestation – a certain richness arising organically from light complemented by specific elements of its environments, such as the time-axis, the existence of viewers and exhibition spaces.

 

This exhibition will feature 19 new paintings. Aoki’s recent work has had a strong inclination towards relationships existing between the paintings, yet Aoki states that each work in this exhibition is rather complete in and of itself, with each integrating elements from his previous explorations. As such, the individual painting becomes a part, or an element, of a further manifestation of a new development in the exhibition space. This solo exhibition marks an important turning point for the artist.

 

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About This Exhibition

Aoki contributes the following statement for this exhibition:

 

The exhibition title Today’s suggests that paintings do not stay with the same forms or colors at any moment. I have developed my approach towards light thus far towards its three-dimensional manifestation as well as interactive paintings (paintings that allow two-way communication), to further expand my consideration of the contemporary act of looking.
A volume arising out of light reflects its context – space, time, and environment – in a highly sensitive manner. We transfer scenes that our eyes have experienced as reference points into the picture plane. This does not merely signify the reproduction of a part of nature, but an attempt at visualizing a part or whole of environment, as well as to form a language that triggers resonances in the viewer when they stand in front of a work.
When a viewer looks at a painting, the experience always changes according to the movements of their eyes and body, and positional relationships in certain environments. Furthermore, by considering perspectives and thought through our own respective consciousness and experiences, a two-way communication between a painting and a viewer can be manifested. A painting appears in the real world, and acts on the backside of the retina.
My colors represent life and death, and violet suggests a small act of resistance against a myopic society. There is a painting definitively in space, and next to it there is another, as well as a gap between it and its environment, and I who receive it. I hope that questions regarding the contemporary eye and way of thinking may arise there.
As neither light nor shadow appears in a world without volume, neither will life or death exist there. Only a void lies quietly in such a world, where only its breath can be heard.
However, a person can move a painting, and also can choose not to stand in front of painting. These acts are confirmations of life.

 

We live in a digitalized environment in which we are constantly exposed to blue light emitted by our digital devices. As a counter to this Aoki adds violet, which not only forms a part of natural sunlight but is also considered to reduce nearsightedness, into his color choices. By focusing on physical mass and its subtle aspects, such as fine cracks or folds, Aoki visualizes as-yet undiscovered beauty and its possibilities, and further invites viewers to reconsider the act of looking in our contemporary time. That also entails a means to rethinking the possibilities of painting. Human sensitivity towards volume may in fact become stronger in our digitalized era. Aoki continues his experiments in pursuit of new horizons in painting.

 

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General information

Exhibition
Yutaka Aoki "Today's"

Dates
March 9 − April 13, 2019
Opening reception: March 9, at 6 pm - 8 pm

Hours
11 am - 6 pm / Tue, Wed, Thu and Saturday
11 am - 8 pm / Friday
Closed on Sun, Mon and National Holidays

Location
KOSAKU KANECHIKA
TERRADA Art Complex 5F
1-33-10 Higashi-Shinagawa
Shinagawa-ku
Tokyo
140-0002
+81(0)3-6712-3346
kosakukanechika.com

Free admission

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Yutaka Aoki

Yutaka Aoki was born in 1985 in Kumamoto. He currently lives and works in Tokyo. He graduated from the Painting major of the Department of Fine Arts, Tokyo Zokei University, in 2008, and received an M.A. in Fine Art from the Graduate School of Tokyo Zokei University in 2010. His major solo exhibitions include “multiprime” (hiromiyoshii, Tokyo, 2011), “OUTER ROOM, INNER GARDEN” (Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto, 2012) and “Mouvements” (Sprout Curation, Tokyo, 2014). His major group exhibitions include “The Way of Painting” (Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, 2014), “VOCA” (The Ueno Royal Museum, 2016), and “Collection Exhibition” (Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto, 2016). Aoki’s work has been included in public collections including the Takahashi Collection and that of the Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto. This is his second solo exhibition with KOSAKU KANECHIKA.