Past Exhibition

“Embracing for Painting —Minako Abe, Midori Sato, and Manika Nagare exhibition—”

“Embracing for Painting —Minako Abe, Midori Sato, and Manika Nagare exhibition—”

Duration: Part 1: Encountering Painting — July 31 (Fri) through August 23 (Sun)
Part 2: Surrounded by Painting — August 28 (Fri) through September 20 (Sun)

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.

■Exhibitor Profiles

Minako Abe Born in Chiba prefecture, lives in Yokohama.
2000
BA in Fine Arts from Tokyo Zokei University
2004
MA in Painting from Graduate School of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts
2012
Received 27th Holbein Scholarship

Selected Major Exhibitions
2006
Minako Abe Exhibition, Base Gallery
2007
Landschaft, Roentgenwerke
Young Japanese Landscape, Moya (Vienna)
2008
Minako Abe Exhibition, Base Gallery
2010
Minako Abe Exhibition, Base Gallery
2013
Project N 51 Abe Minako, Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery
2014
VOCA Exhibition 2014 (The Vision of Contemporary Art), Ueno Royal Museum
Tayutau Shizen (Floating Nature) Exhibition, planned by Tama Art University
Exhibition Planning Seminar (CPUE), Gallery W
Midori Sato Born in Aichi Prefecture, lives in Nagoya.
2008
BA in Fine Arts from Nagoya University of Arts
2010
MA in Fine Arts from Graduate School of Tokyo Zokei University

Selected Major Exhibitions
2008
Art Award Tokyo Marunouchi 2008, Gyoko-dori Underground Gallery, Marunouchi, Tokyo
2012
Project N 48 SATO Midori, Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery
My Precious Room, TKG Editions Kyoto
2013
Tokyo Painting II—Mindscape between interior and exterior, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
Ohara Contemporary, Ohara Museum of Art, Okayama
2014
Fascinated Times, 8/ART GALLERY/Tomio Koyama Gallery
A June House, Dai-Ichi-Life South Gallery

Selected Awards
2010

Art Award Tokyo Marunouchi 2010, Koyama Tomio Award
2013
VOCA Exhibition 2013 (The Vision of Contemporary Art) 2013, Ohara Art Museum Award
Manika Nagare Born in Kagawa Prefecture, currently lives in Tokyo.
1997
BA in Painting from Joshibi University of Art and Design
2002
Selected Artist-in-Residency Program in New York through Japanese Government Overseas Study Program for Artists. A Recipient of the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs Grant
2004
A Recipient of the Pola Art Foundation Grant

Selected Major Exhibitions
2000
VOCA Exhibition 2000 (The Vision of Contemporary Art), Ueno Royal Museum
2006
VOCA Exhibition 2006 (The Vision of Contemporary Art), Ueno Royal Museum
Glib Reticence, Recent Glibness, The Pola Museum Annex
2010
Domani: The Art of Tomorrow, The National Art Center, Tokyo
2013
Visible Edge, Yuka Tsuruno Gallery, Tokyo
2014
Line of Sight, Miyako Yoshinaga Gallery, NYC

Nagare has also been active in public art projects, for example the Azabu Public Library building in Minato ward, Tokyo, where she supervised the selection of paintings and overall color scheme design, and she continues searching for opportunities to take painting into three-dimensional spaces. This past spring she was involved, along with apparel brand Enfold and Shiseido’s global brand, in the printing of a collaborative item. She also supports "Ichiji Gahaku" a nonprofit organization whose mission is to put children in touch with more opportunities to encounter art.

■Selected Works for Reference

Minako Abe

Scene no.41 2013 194.0 x 388.0 Oil on canvas

Scene no.41
2013 194.0 x 388.0
Oil on canvas

Scene no.42 2014 130.3 x 162.0 Oil on canvas

Scene no.42
2014 130.3 x 162.0
Oil on canvas

Midori Sato

Flower closet 2014 194.0 x 259.0 Acrylic and oil on cotton

Flower closet
2014 194.0 x 259.0
Acrylic and oil on cotton

English Rose garden 2014 194.0 x 194.0 Acrylic and oil on cotton

English Rose garden
2014 194.0 x 194.0
Acrylic and oil on cotton

Manika Nagare

Mercury and the Woodman 2013 97.0 x 162.0 Oil on canvas

Mercury and the Woodman
2013 97.0 x 162.0
Oil on canvas

Visibility 2012 130.3 x 194.0 Oil on canvas

Visibility
2012 130.3 x 194.0
Oil on canvas

■Exhibition Details for Embracing for Painting

Sponsor : Shiseido Co., Ltd.
Duration : Part 1: Encountering Painting — July 31 (Fri) to August 23 (Sun), 2015
Part 2: Surrounded by Painting — August 28 (Fri) to September 20 (Sun), 2015
Venue : Shiseido Gallery
Ginza Shiseido Building, B1, 8-8-3 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0061
Tel:03-3572-3901; Fax:03-3572-3951
Hours : Weekdays 11:00 AM - 7:00 PM,
Sunday & National Holidays 11:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Closed Mondays (including public holidays)
Admission is : Free

Exhibition View

photo by Ken KATO

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