Monday 17 February 2014

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.

Wednesday 5 February 2014

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/