Shinoda Taro, Katsura 05, 2020, Oil on canvas, 120 x 95 cm (47.2 x 37.4 in)
桂 KATSURA
篠田 太郎 Shinoda Taro
Date: Saturday November 14 – Saturday December 26, 2020
Hours: Tuesday-Saturday 12:00-19:00 (Closed on Mon, Sun, Public holidays)
PRESS RELEASE
Download Press release (English)
MISA SHIN GALLERY is pleased to announce “Katsura”, a solo exhibition of new works by Shinoda Taro, from Saturday, November 14 through Saturday, December 26, 2020.
Shinoda Taro’s new works employ basic oil painting materials, sizing linen canvas with rabbit skin glue and using walnut oil as a painting medium. Nevertheless, they are distinctly unlike the conventional paintings that we are familiar with. Standing in front of one of these works, viewers feel unsure about what distance and what angle to view the painting from. Extending inwards from the edges of each work is a large margin of linen canvas, which curves away from the viewer as it approaches the center, creating a depression with a depth of about 5 centimeters. In the center is a flat area covered by an abstract composition of colors and grid lines, painted with oil paints.
Shinoda Taro, Katsura 03, 2020, Oil on canvas, 120 x 95 cm (47.2 x 37.4 in)
As part of the process behind the production of these paintings, Shinoda found his way to Katsura Rikyu, the Katsura Imperial Villa on the outskirts of Kyoto. Perceiving that the Japanese aesthetic concept of structure differs from the commonly-taught dimension-based concept grounded in two- and three-dimensional structures, Shinoda endeavored to bring out that difference in these paintings by giving emphasis to the elements of Japanese architectural tradition as symbolized by Katsura Rikyu. In the sense of taking time and space as a single lineage, his new paintings approach the structure of Katsura.
“What I was attempting to do in these paintings is not consistent with the so-called Western approach to painting. They are paintings in appearance and shape, and formally they can be described in the context of painting, but these are not works that emerged as part of such a stream or such trends.”
Shinoda had felt ill at ease with the Western understanding of time and space ever since his early career as a landscape architect specializing in traditional Japanese gardens, and he began to wonder how he had acquired his own ideas of time and space. The distance from which we view a painting can be thought of as a physical action based on components of our shared awareness and on the ways of living, society, and culture that are extensions thereof. This new series, Katsura, derives from revisiting that thinking to question once more the premises that lie behind it.
Shinoda Taro
Born in Tokyo in 1964. His wide-ranging work encompassing sculpture, video works and installation delves deep into the relationship between humans and nature, receiving substantial international acclaim. Major solo exhibitons and projects include Sharjah Art Foundation (Sharjah, 2016), balzerArtprojects (Basle,2015), Mori Art Museum (Tokyo, 2010), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 2009), REDCAT (Los Angeles, 2005) and Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art (Hiroshima, 2002). Major international exhibitions include Saitama Triennale (Saitama, 2020), “Garden of Earthly Delights” at Martin-Gropius-Bau (Berlin, 2019), Sydney Biennale (Sydney, 2016), Sharjah Biennale (Sharjah, 2015), Istanbul Biennale (Istanbul, 2007), Busan Biennale (Busan ,2006) and Yokohama Triennale (Yokohama, 2001)
Shinoda Taro, Katsura 08, 2020, Oil on canvas, 120 x 95 cm (47.2 x 37.4 in)