Menu
The New Contemporary Art Magazine

Hiroomi Ito Paints Past, Present of Japan

Painter Hiroomi Ito uses traditional means to produce contemporary scenes and ideas. And he takes this process further than just creating his own color pigments; he actually creates the rice paper on which his works are crafted. In these works, Ito explores modern social issues as they relate to customs of the past.

Painter Hiroomi Ito uses traditional means to produce contemporary scenes and ideas. And he takes this process further than just creating his own color pigments; he actually creates the rice paper on which his works are crafted. In these works, Ito explores modern social issues as they relate to customs of the past.

JanKossen Contemporary in New York comments on the spiritual influences in the artist’s work: “Ito’s work is a celebration of how God provides for us, in connection to the importance of the family as a social unit for the individual. His images of food on the table are inspired by European 15th century still life paintings of the natural world. Ito depicts dishes typically found in Asia, as symbols of both devotional and secular images.”

The venue describes his process leading up to the work as much as it does the creation of each piece itself. On the framing, it says that “The delicate paper is stretched and mounted upon a classical, wooden frame prepared by the artist in a chess-board pattern.”

Meta
Share
Facebook
Reddit
Pinterest
Email
Related Articles
Alejandro Pasquale’s surreal paintings are mysterious portraits, with the faces of subjects often obscured in flora or masks. These youthful explorations often come in varying moods, from wonder to melancholy and even loneliness. The painter uses oils, acrylics, and graphite to fuel these ideas. The artist was last featured on HiFructose.com here.
Frenchman Lou Ros is self-taught and he used to tag walls. You can see both in his work. He didn’t learn the academic tradition and then proceed to tear it down. He works from photographs; he wants to paint stills from films. Photographs and still shots capture moments in flux. That’s what Ros does. He paints until he finds the feeling he seeks or else discovers. Then he finishes. It doesn’t matter whether the work itself is academically done. What matters is that he’s done. He works rapidly, in short bursts of energy. That’s the tagger’s MO. In and out, say what you have to say, clear and simple, before the flics arrive.
Kenta Torii’s vibrant paintings are a striking blend of traditional imagery and contemporary sensibilities. The Japan-born artist, who has been based in Mexico for more than a decade, offers this in both traditional works and murals. WIthin these works are also hints of tattoo and street culture, integrated into his fantastical creatures and scenes.
Jenny Morgan's (featured in HF Vol. 21) paintings reveal beauty in simplicity. She often depicts nude figures with poignant expressions, stylizing their bodies to fit her sunrise-hued palette in lieu of focusing on minuscule details like hairs and wrinkles. The simplification of her subjects gives her work a glossed-over effect that pushes it from objective realism into surreal territory. For her latest exhibition "The Golden Hour" at Plus Gallery in Denver, Morgan explored notions of spirituality and the cycle of life. While her major focus has always been faces, often using herself as a subject, her exhibition features a substantial amount of paintings of skulls, alluding to the fading nature of youth and the ephemerality of the body. Take a look at the work in the show below and check out "The Golden Hour" on view through October 18.

Subscribe to the Hi-Fructose Mailing List