Menu
The New Contemporary Art Magazine

Preview: “Spiral of Emotions” by Kazuki Takamatsu at CHG Circa

Japanese artist Kazuki Takamatsu (featured in Hi-Fructose Vol. 16) has a new solo show opening at CHG Circa on June 21st, “Spiral of Emotions”. The show’s title epitomizes the ghostly spiraling layers in Takamatsu’s handpainted figures that look like 3D graphics. He will exhibit twelve new gouache paintings exploring the emotional disconnect between the old and adolescent generations of Japan. These compositions may be precisely designed with a digital technique called Depth Mapping, but the final result captures feelings that cannot be planned. For his debut exhibition with Corey Helford last year, “Japanese Ideology of Puberty”, Takamatsu infused elements of Japanese pop culture and fantasy that are further employed here. His new subjects appear "lost" and floating through ethereal visions of death, spirituality, and an uncertain future. See more after the jump!

Japanese artist Kazuki Takamatsu (featured in Hi-Fructose Vol. 16) has a new solo show opening at CHG Circa on June 21st, “Spiral of Emotions”. The show’s title epitomizes the ghostly spiraling layers in Takamatsu’s handpainted figures that look like 3D graphics. He will exhibit twelve new gouache paintings exploring the emotional disconnect between the old and adolescent generations of Japan. These compositions may be precisely designed with a digital technique called Depth Mapping, but the final result captures feelings that cannot be planned. For his debut exhibition with Corey Helford last year, “Japanese Ideology of Puberty”, Takamatsu infused elements of Japanese pop culture and fantasy that are further employed here. His new subjects appear “lost” and floating through ethereal visions of death, spirituality, and an uncertain future.

Meta
Share
Facebook
Reddit
Pinterest
Email
Related Articles
Currently on view at Harbour City, Hong Kong is "Sky is the Limit", a new sculpture and paintings by Tomokazu Matsuyama (Vol 24). Curated by LA based Lebasse Projects in collaboration with Harbour City's Ocean Terminal and gallery, the event centers around Matsuyama's largest outdoor sculpture of the same name. At 21.5 feet of stainless steel, it is also the largest ever installed in Harbour City, which has previously exhibited artists like KAWS, Yayoi Kusama, and Yue Minjun.
Japanese pop artist Keiichi Tanaami (previously covered here) has a new exhibition on view at Tokyo's underground gallery, Nanzuka. "Cherry Blossoms Falling in the Evening Gloom" is named after his show's titular piece, an effort to take the darkest of his personal experiences and turn them into a positive image. The 3-meter painting leads into a transformation in the artist's motifs, known for his glowing, grotesque creatures, which are shown emitting light.
"I think listening to some songs can be a lot like looking at a painting. The meaning can vary greatly depending on who's listening and what they're feeling at the time and where they're at in their lives. I love the idea of something being so open to interpretation," shares Nate Frizzel on his recent show at CHG Circa, "Dark Was The Night". The show borrows very loose inspiration from 1920s gospel song, “Dark is the Night". It is what paved the direction Frizzel wanted to go in. The rest, he leaves to the beholder. Photos from opening night after the jump!
Japanese artist Izumi Kato's debut exhibition in the United States at Galerie Perrotin in New York is all about his creatures with very simplified human features and penetrating eyes. The simplistic traces in his portraits are one of the consequences of painting with no brushes or tools – only his hands and occasionally, a spatula. When Kato first started to paint, he was immersed in painting the abstract, but then he decided to try more human shapes, which can sometimes seem childlike but with an adult and eerie appearance. In his work, you can discover portrayals of a man but also a woman, cute but also ugly, a toy but also a monster.

Subscribe to the Hi-Fructose Mailing List