"UROBOROS"
Ryo Kawada

November 1 - November 16, 2014
12:00-19:00
closed on Mondays and Tuesdays

Ryo Kawada

Bambinart Gallery is pleased to present "UROBOROS", a solo-exhibit by Ryo Kawada. Ryo Kawada (born in Niigata Prefecture, 1988) belongs to the Graduate School at Tokyo Zokei University.

Ryo Kawada (born in Nigata Prefecture in 1988) is a painter who has been attending Tokyo Zokei University over the last four years. In 2013, he was a recipient of the Turner Award – Future Prize and of the Tama Art Competition Tenmyoya Hisashi Prize.

Although Kawada’s work, which largely consists of figurative portraits and landscapes, gives the impression at first-glance of being a realistic representation with a close attention to detail, it is actually comprised of a series of rough touches. Moreover, while Kawada’s work, composed of dark colours, is filled with an atmosphere of disquiet, it is definitely not work that expresses dark themes. For example, if we look at Kawada’s previous work, we can see that although one work which, at a glance, has the appearance of an unworldly face expressing a feeling that it has done wrong; it is actually a painting of tofu. In another, ominous-looking clouds are actually candy floss. The reality of these works can be understood from the titles. This has the result of turning sceneries which have no meaning into ones which are filled with deep meaning. That said, the scenes from these paintings without meaning are copied from real life objects prepared by the artist using such devices as asking a friend to model for the picture, or by preparing a still object or, in some cases, painting a backdrop from an existing image.

By creating scenes in his paintings that are expressly false, Kawada is, conversely, able to eliminate the sense of falseness that accompanies a painting – the objects in the painting are just what they are. By painting scenes that are right in front of his eyes, rather than scenes from his imagination, he is expressing the falsity of the real object at the centre of a painting. Furthermore, by expressing the falsity of this real object at the centre of the artwork, he is exposing the lie that exists within any created work. In reality, there is no deep meaning within the background of the hidden environments or tense glimpses he creates. Moreover, the scenes he paints are just scenes that have actually existed, with no meaning attached.

For Kawada, god, nature and human beings are best understand not as separate distinct existences but through a realization that their intertwined relationship constitutes one existence, one whole. For him, paintings are “an artist’s map,” “a prepared motif (model, still object or nature),” “a complete painting.” Their relationship creates actions or deeds that enable us to look for the reality of the relationship between people, nature and artificial objects.

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