Sadaharu Horio BB Plaza Museum of Art - Kobe - Japan

Installation Sadaharu Horio

Always full of surprises

This current installation by Sadaharu Horio at the BB Plaza Museum of Art is the first installment and is next to the opening of the Museum were Horio is now having a major exhibition of his artworks. When viewing Horio's installation through the window, ones first impression is what is going here! And that bewildering surprise is a  most likable sensation to have when observing an artwork for it challenges your thinking.

It appears Horio's work history from his time in the massive shipyards along the Kobe wharves have honed his praxis skills by scanning around the rubbish of his workplace and thinking it could well be used as an art piece. Actually there is an artwork of Horio's in the corporations cafeteria that a co worker used to look at and wonder what is that? 

Not surprisingly, Horio exhibits with his corporate workmates in their annual show and its always great pleasure to see the exhibition in the underground shopping malls of Kobe, his co workers images are mainly of the local  landscape and then one comes across Horio's art installation that always brings a smile to my face. 

In the current world of art branding Horio seems to have missed that too, he is aloof, very idiosyncratic to the extreme and exceedingly generous, he seeks new ways to do painting, to create that raw sensation of shock on first contact, even if it makes you laugh later. In someways Horios praxis reminds one of the best early paintings of Francis Bacon. 

For example, Bacon's Head VI  (1949) of the screaming Pope where the paint is just charged powerfully off the nervous system on top the canvas, fantastically raw image making, that is undiluted by the artist's need for a slick, clever surface qualities creating a kind of marketable art brand.

That attitude of painting that comes from the raw direct nervous system, creating shock in art appears now to be missing from contemporary art, its been subdued by the business of art but not here Horio is always seeking uncharted aesthetic horizons and his collections of strange objects makes sure his system of praxis is always incorporating something new. 

Horio by collecting new objects to use within his studio work is continually shifting his system of artistic praxis, making his store house of memory broader and more interesting, therefore allowing him to create this strange but very interesting current show at BB Plaza Museum of Art  reveals. So if your near BB Plaza Museum of Art Plaza Museum of Art do go and have a look at this wonderfully idiosyncratic artist.

Bacon's Painting Head VI

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Head_VI_(1949).JPG

Link to Sadaharu Horio exhibition at BB Plaza Museum of Art

http://bbpmuseum.jp/exhibition/20140321

Masuru Kurose - Metamorphic Painting - Gallery KAI – Kobe

Masuru Kurose's Metamorphic Painting

The current exhibition on at Gallery KAI in Kobe by Masuru Kurose titled; Metamorphic Painting is his strongest show so far one has seen and reveals that his developing system of praxis towards his concept is still changing. 

The other issue about the KIA gallery that one really likes is that it is small, it is not like some vast looking supermarket space with lost looking art on the walls, the gallery owner appears intensely keen to get the artist's ideas recognized and out there into the societal memory.

  

So with that being said; it’s thought-provoking to see how Kurose has moved on from the rectangular frames  from his last seen show (prior to this show) where he painted with acrylic on plastic, and that system of painting has now been replaced with painted jigsaw shapes, that he will change during the course of this exhibition.

In conversation with Kurose (and as much as one understood in English and Japanese) he will change the painted jigsaw shapes with a sense of randomness, giving the exhibition a sense of studio praxis, if one could call it that, which is very curious because it tends to mean that the idea of a exhibition in painting is not a cul de sac so to say but opens up more possibilities. Also in conversation with Kurose he mentioned that acrylic suited his painting praxis more than any other medium, and that is important to be aware of because of what one can do with a medium in painting is important in praxis.

This progression in media by Kurose within studio methodology  has more impact now and the way he shifts each individual jig saw piece in painting praxis, then joins them with a sense of chance is very appealing because it gives the  a really good sense of randomness when the temporary jigsaw pieces come together as a collective whole.

Kurose’s open ended aesthetic horizon is very enjoyable and to anticipate it changing by going back to the gallery later during the week is an interesting experiment because the artist appears to be about an ongoing aesthetic renewal, revealing how art like science can be serious and fun.

So if you get down to Gallery KAI near Kobe Motomachi this week the chances are you will see chance happening within the artworks and it’s a fascinating visual experience.

BB Plaza Museum of Art - Kobe - Japan

BB Plaza is a different museum one might suggest a intimate viewing space and instead of walking through it, one  tends to swathe through the sensual passions of artist’s aesthetics that are resonating from the artworks on show within this wonderful exhibition.

In visiting this exhibition twice to see several stunning artworks, the overall sensation reverberating from the art objects is the artists’ touch, that nowadays in art appears seemingly uncommon and even overlooked as an old fashioned idea in studio praxis, and nothing could be further from the truth for these artworks vibrate the passionate sensation of being made in the now.

This exhibition at BB Plaza Museum brings into sharp focus something important within the fine arts and that is the human sensibility of touch in creating a trace upon paper or canvas and how some artists are so good at it. For example, Ando Hiroshige or Rembrandt as evidenced within their studio praxis have created traces which one might call innate, for their abilities in constructing drawn ink traces that are completely out their own their own aesthetic horizons. But in saying that these afore mentioned are born with such painting skills is not true they're acquired through studio praxis in getting the traces to equal the intentionality’s of the idea.

And this show at BB Plaza Museum of Art has some stunning examples of that mastering of traces constructed in studio praxis towards the final image, gosh there is some gob smacking images from western and Japanese painting systems, making it a unique and delightfully edgy show. It is great to see two unique methodologies of painting exhibited side by side from two distinctly differing cultures with the commonality of desires being highly intelligent and sophisticated mark making constructed into an image from the likes of Marc Chagall, Picasso, Renoir, Kanji Higashiyama, Takeji Fujishima and Ryohei Koiso.

A wonderful example of human traces in painting can be evidenced  in Taiji Yamamoto’s painting of a White Flower and it is exquisite ( I went back to see it twice), it so sublimely beautiful, strong yet fragile, it tends to contain many of the elements that go beyond just ordinary painting in terms of what human touch can achieve as painted traces on paper, and what comes off the end of the brush through this painter’s scintillating facility in the application of paint, transcends just the idea, its extreme passion in creating an image, thus seducing the senses into an kind of aesthetic ecstasy.

If you're in Kobe here is the link to BB Plaza well worth going to see.

http://bbpmuseum.jp/

Takehiro Terabayashi - Yoshimi Arts - Osaka - Japan

Painting by Takehiro Terabayash

Often one gets sick of trying to justify painting or painters and why they do, its a really silly question for people to ask in some ways, for it's a natural as breathing is and its just something the artist has to do to keep alive. 

Currently, on show at Yoshimi Arts in Insight 10 exhibition there is a smallish painting by Takehiro Terabayashi, it reminds me of the British Kitchen Sink School (see link below) that portrayed the working class aesthetic of their time, but this is Japan and I have no idea of what Takehiro's social points of view are but his painting does hit ones nervous system with a strange and quirky sensation.

In the above painting by Terabayashi  portraying a door handle appears not to painted with any mystery resonating from it  but curiously one is still attracted to it, why is not always answerable but to accept ones fait accompli to the seduction of the image may well be the answer and just gaze let then let one's realisations surface into consciousness

Therefore when viewing Terabayashi's seemingly unattractive door handle motif, painted in greyish silver hues, that reflects the dull imagery the office or domestic surrounds, that is placed upon a terre-verte green door, next to a tedious grey wall, which seems it could be understood in an instant of a glance, but this is were the painting becomes interesting through analysis of ones sensation.

 For example in observing the painting by Terabayashi one thought that arises is will the painting remain this way till the end of  days, as it seems to resonate that type of sensation and the obvious answer is no! Flux and time shift memories of things. 

The philosopher Heraclitus tends to bring an interesting idea into Terabayashi's painting, being the phrase  "Nothing endures but change.", therefore in gazing at his image, one starts to realize that in placing the oil traces on the canvas, the motif through time and flux it has already shifted from its origins and will continue to change well into the future. And how Terabayashi understood the motif at the beginning of the canvas to the end, may well of moved on, even  as I have in writing about his painting, new issues about the images long term survival have surfaced which reinforces the idea, that nothing stays still.

How one's memory reads Terabayashi's painting will be interesting and ongoing which means your alive, so if your in Osaka do go to Yoshimi Arts and enjoy this artwork and the rest of the exhibits.

Introduction

Domestic Tsunami Aesthetic
painting by Ozgaka

  

Since 3/11 in Japan ones life has been a little different and the ongoing experience of residing in Nippon maintains a kind of strange daily ambiance in a sense its like holding ones breath to see what might happen next, but nonetheless its a great place to paint and create art.

The Museums in Japan are amazing in how they present the many wonderful exhibitions from around the world, its truly impressive by any earthly standard and what an artist can learn from to use within ones praxis in painting is never ending.

For example; on any day just there is something worthwhile going to see close by within the Kansai area. For instance, just last weekend it was off to see the National Museum of Modern Art in Osaka with its  magnificent collection  from the local museums put together as a schematic overview of what was available to see within the terrains of middle Japan and it was savvy.

But beyond the museums there is the daily praxis to be seen from the many artists residing in Japan and whether they be Japanese nationals or Gaigins like myself, it doesn't not matter for the passion in creating artworks here is just the same. The one things Japan does have is a strong representative multi cultural art scene and its not an industry but various nationalities from around the globe, who come here to learn from Nippon's long and very sophisticated aesthetic histories that can be witnessed in the many museums and galleries.

And in some ways like English Art critic John Ruskin, ones point of on aesthetics in fine art is somewhat similar, being  a true believer in the natural beauty of nature's public surfaces and to use these observations in praxis in creating something truly idiosyncratic from faculties on ones imagination in painting is the journey taken.

So in writing this current blog, that will hopefully present some kind of protagonist point of view on the idea of beauty in painting/drawing and how it is presented as an artwork. For memory in painting is the engine room of all praxis, all other functions that create traces, illuminated by light artificial and natural on canvas or paper stem from the aforementioned aesthetic function.

So as the blog gets published please enjoy

Kind regards

Ozgaka