EXHIBITIONS
Fu Nagasawa & Takuma Oue “Mark Making”
Dates: Mar 15 – Apr 20, 2025
Location: Taka Ishii Gallery Maebashi
Opening reception: Saturday, Mar 15, 17:00 – 19:00
Taka Ishii Gallery Maebashi is pleased to present “Mark Making,” a two-person exhibition of the works of Fu Nagasawa and Takuma Oue, from Saturday, March 15 to Sunday, April 20.
Fu Nagasawa was born in 1999 in Kochi Prefecture and lives and works in Kyoto Prefecture. He holds a bachelor’s degree in oil painting (2022) from Musashino Art University and completed a master’s degree (MFA) in the same field at Kyoto University of the Arts in 2025. He has participated in group exhibitions including “Artificial-Natural”, COHJU, Kyoto (2024) and “SHIBUYA STYLE vol.17”, Art Gallery & Alternative Space, Seibu Shibuya, Tokyo (2023).
Kyoto-based Fu Nagasawa creates paintings based on plant and animal motifs from pottery, porcelain, and dyed fabrics that he finds at flea markets. These motifs from traditional handicrafts have been passed down through the generations by skilled artisans, and are familiar features of daily life for many Japanese people. Nagasawa’s works transfer these motifs to canvas, almost as if a bird has flown into the picture. In this new medium, the images cease to have a decorative role and assume a singular presence on the canvas. While allegorical expressions that give meaning to depicted objects are a common thread through Western art history, Nagasawa’s work may be described as a search for a new, contrasting form of pictorial expression. His production process entails the repeated application of color using woodblocks and oil painting with brushes. He intentionally includes elements that are out of his control, such as the unevenness of color applied using woodblock printing techniques, and the result of his uniquely texture paint, deliberately applied with rough brushstrokes, that emerges when the print is pressed. This has parallels to the production process of traditional artisan objects, each of which is hand-painted or glazed with minute differences and undergoes unforeseen changes inside the kiln during firing. Nagasawa’s work incorporates elements of crafts honed by countless unknown artisans, and is an attempt to resituate the medium of painting within a broader framework that is not limited to what takes place on a rectangular canvas.
Takuma Oue was born in 2000 in Osaka Prefecture and currently lives and works in Kyoto Prefecture. He graduated in 2023 with a BA (major in oil painting) and completed in 2025 a master’s degree (MFA) in the same field at Kyoto University of the Arts. He has participated in group exhibitions including “Jogyo Zammai”, A-LAB, Hyogo (2024) and “Rabbit, Hummingbird, and Homunculus: How to Make a New Horizon”, MEDIA SHOP, Kyoto (2023).
Takuma Oue’s recent work explores the possibilities of both abstract painting that incorporates collage and sculptural production that includes performative elements. These efforts build on Oue’s previous oil paintings made without brushes and using his bare hands, and which emerged from his sense of the boundary between his own body and the outside world. Oue uses the word “menace” to describe his own abstract paintings. Vivid reds and yellows coexist on the canvas, colliding and intermixing, as lines brimming with energy cut across each frame. Circular cut-out photographs of stones are pasted on the canvas as a distinct presence scattered within the paintings. Reminiscent of the warning colors that creatures produce to protect themselves from predators, the paintings’ various elements make a strong impression on the viewer and draw our attention back to the mental effects of visual expression and our visceral responses to it. Presented as a series of paintings in different colors, the power of these works grows more pronounced as their effects expand into an experience in three dimensions. On the other hand, Oue’s sculptural works consist of plaster casts molded from clay that he chewed with his teeth or pressed his kneecaps against, leaving direct traces of his body as an index. A structure appears like an unearthed ancient relic, sparking a sensation of stepping into a space inhabited by other beings. Born out of the exploration of the artist’s own physical sensations, Oue’s sculptural works contain fragility while also laying claim to a domain alongside his paintings, inviting viewers to contemplate our own physical senses and the constantly shifting distance that separates us from others.
