The Shiseido Gallery is pleased to announce that from July 31 (Fri) through September 20 (Sun), 2015 it will present a two-part exhibition titled Embracing for Painting.
The values people hold today, in our twenty-first century world, show a degree of diversity unprecedented in history. A new sense of mutual sympathy is on the rise, in the sense of people recognizing and accepting one another’s differences. Similarly, in the world of contemporary art, modes of expression are more diverse than ever, and encounters with art, too, once limited to formal art museums, now extend to a much wider range of venues and opportunities. Many of these are much closer and more accessible to our everyday lives: mass media, online sources, and a myriad of smaller or more unconventional spaces.
In line with this burgeoning diversity in the contemporary art scene, the three artists presenting in this exhibition—Minako Abe, Midori Sato, and Manika Nagare—are all embracing new possibilities in painting, itself one of the oldest and most tradition-steeped forms of artistic expression. Minako Abe, for example, uses a computer to add arbitrary deformations to photographs of nature scenes, then manipulates the resulting images using masking tape and rollers to recreate a new vision of the scene. Midori Sato paints with brushstrokes reminiscent of the plethora of highly colorful fashion items flooding our modern world. And Manika Nagare paints mainly scenes of people and nature, but with unique lines and colorations, as well as multiple layerings of paint, to create images that veer more towards the abstract. Throughout history of art, painting has always been in competition with other, ever-diversifying artistic genres, under conditions of instability that constantly question its relevancy. These three artists are living their creative lives while embracing the art of painting and its turbulent history, striving for a kind of creativity difficult to realize amidst so many jostling artistic genres, and in many ways they exemplify a beautiful, creative way of life ideal for this age of contemporary art.
The exhibition title, Embracing for Painting, points to the creative position common to all three artists. This is the life of a painter, the artist who accepts painting, chooses it as her creative means, and moves forward freely using it to her own ends. The word "embrace" in reference to this attitude towards painting connotes the resolve of these artists, in love with their medium and moving to draw it closer and thus to experience that bliss of connection with it. In this way, this exhibition aims to find new appeal in these three artists and their embrace of painting.
Embracing for Painting is divided into two parts, each presenting a different set of new works displayed in two different formats. In "Part 1: Encountering Painting," the works of all three artists are displayed as a large tableau. The opportunity thus created enables viewers to encounter these works face on, bringing them deeply into the world of painting as envisioned by each of the three artists. The impactful illusion created as the colors of these works weave together offer a rare visual experience. In "Part 2: Surrounded by Painting," the single tableau style is replaced by a different set of new works now positioned around the gallery, calling and echoing one another through the space, an arrangement that gives viewers a sense of being surrounded by a swirling whirlpool of image and color. These two halves of the exhibition together offer a deep taste of the appeal of painting today, and an encounter with painting offered in an extraordinary manner.
Shiseido makes it a mission to promote and create beauty in life and culture, and recognizing the diversity of beauty itself, we support those who take an active role in creating their own lives according to their own nature. These three artists do just that, completely embracing the medium of traditional painting, but doing so actively on their own creative terms with exciting new art that will be sure to resonates with so many other who appreciate and embrace similarly creative urges in their own lives.
