EXHIBITIONS

Shinpei Kusanagi “ideath”

Dates: Jun 19 – Jul 25, 2009
Opening reception: Jun 19, Friday, 18:00 – 20:00

Taka Ishii Gallery Kyoto is pleased to announce our first solo exhibition with Shinpei Kusanagi.

“We mix watermelon sugar and trout juice and special herbs all together and in their proper time to make this fine oil that we use to light our world.” (Richard Brautigan “In Watermelon Sugar”)

Shinpei Kusanagi was born (1973) and presently lives and works in Tokyo. A major part of his early work was comprised of drawings on paper and work on wooden panel executed in a variety of media. In recent years, he has primarily worked with acrylic and colored pencil on canvas and has focused on painting. The works of Kusanagi might prompt in the viewer somehow a feeling of recollection; they do not present a static image, but are rather visually complex.

While taking part in an artist residency program in Vienna, 2005, changes within his practice became evident. Within his works, which prior to this point could be described as concrete – though showing traces of narrative – abstract, yet representational elements such as colorful beams of light began to appear.

After returning from Vienna in 2006, Kusanagi participated in the Bank ART Studio NYK Program in Yokohama. Exhibiting at “Open Studio at Bank ART Studio NYK“, he had an opportunity to present the developments within his art to a wider public.

Kusanagi has maintained an international presence by exhibiting abroad at the NADA Art Fair in Miami and The Armory Show in New York. He has a solo exhibition scheduled for the fall of 2009 in San Francisco at the recently opened gallery “Altman Siegel Gallery S/F”(www.altmansiegel.com