Makoto Saito "After Watching the Tove Jansson Documentary."
Taka Ishii Gallery
Until Dec 14
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Artists
Makoto Saito
Taka Ishii Gallery is pleased to present “After Watching the Tove Jansson Documentary.,” an exhibition of the work of Makoto Saito, from Saturday, November 16 to Saturday, December 14. Saito’s second solo show at the gallery will feature approximately six new paintings.
Saito is known for portraits of artists such as Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, and Antonin Artaud in which their faces appear haunted by insanity, made by transferring computer images onto canvas with a brush as if breathing life into digital data. This process involves dissecting and reconstructing faces on the computer to create intricate dot-matrix blueprints.
With their vivid colors and organic shapes, the new canvases featured in this exhibition mark a radical departure from his previous style and a shift toward abstraction. Inspired by a late-night viewing of a documentary about Finnish artist and writer Tove Jansson, and nostalgic memories of reading Nordic folk tales of trolls and goblins to his daughter, Saito conceived images of forest spirits coming to life, which led to this new body of work.
The various trolls and goblins in these paintings, rendered in highly abstracted colors and shapes against backgrounds that resemble a dim, mysterious Scandinavian forest, appear to coalesce through a process of recurring division and fusion. They are analogous to coacervates (small amoeba-like spheres of proto-cellular organic material) believed to have been the first life forms in the ancient oceans. The folds and cracks of the paint recall the metabolic functions propelling life forms’ growth, which developed over the course of evolution, while also evoking the rugged, uninhabited surface of a desolate planet, juxtaposing microscopic and macroscopic scales. Saito speaks of his great excitement at witnessing phenomena akin to the emergence of life unfolding on his canvases.
In Saito’s previous works, meticulously created from blueprints over great lengths of time, each stage of production was governed by the artist’s precise intent. In contrast, his latest works appear to celebrate the spontaneity of placing embryonic forms on the canvas and observing their natural development. The paint responds to its surrounding environment, such as the underlying layers or neighboring colors, undergoing unexpected changes and weaving myriad visual narratives both large and small. We invite you to wonder at the emergence of spirits in these pulsating, dynamic works.
Saito is known for portraits of artists such as Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, and Antonin Artaud in which their faces appear haunted by insanity, made by transferring computer images onto canvas with a brush as if breathing life into digital data. This process involves dissecting and reconstructing faces on the computer to create intricate dot-matrix blueprints.
With their vivid colors and organic shapes, the new canvases featured in this exhibition mark a radical departure from his previous style and a shift toward abstraction. Inspired by a late-night viewing of a documentary about Finnish artist and writer Tove Jansson, and nostalgic memories of reading Nordic folk tales of trolls and goblins to his daughter, Saito conceived images of forest spirits coming to life, which led to this new body of work.
The various trolls and goblins in these paintings, rendered in highly abstracted colors and shapes against backgrounds that resemble a dim, mysterious Scandinavian forest, appear to coalesce through a process of recurring division and fusion. They are analogous to coacervates (small amoeba-like spheres of proto-cellular organic material) believed to have been the first life forms in the ancient oceans. The folds and cracks of the paint recall the metabolic functions propelling life forms’ growth, which developed over the course of evolution, while also evoking the rugged, uninhabited surface of a desolate planet, juxtaposing microscopic and macroscopic scales. Saito speaks of his great excitement at witnessing phenomena akin to the emergence of life unfolding on his canvases.
In Saito’s previous works, meticulously created from blueprints over great lengths of time, each stage of production was governed by the artist’s precise intent. In contrast, his latest works appear to celebrate the spontaneity of placing embryonic forms on the canvas and observing their natural development. The paint responds to its surrounding environment, such as the underlying layers or neighboring colors, undergoing unexpected changes and weaving myriad visual narratives both large and small. We invite you to wonder at the emergence of spirits in these pulsating, dynamic works.
Schedule Now in session | Nov 16 (Sat) 2024-Dec 14 (Sat) 2024 22 days left Opening Hours Information
Opening Reception Nov 16 (Sat) 2024 17:00 - 19:00 | ||||
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| Fee | Free | ||||
| Website | https://www.takaishiigallery.com/en/archives/38889/ | ||||
| Venue | Taka Ishii Gallery http://www.takaishiigallery.com/ | ||||
| Location | 3F Complex665, 6-5-24 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0032 | ||||
| Access | 2 minute walk from exit 1b at Roppongi Station on the Hbiya or Toei Oedo line, 8 minute walk from exit 7 at Azabu-juban Station on the Nanboku or Toei Oedo line, 11 minute walk from exit 5 at Nogizaka Station on the Chiyoda line. | ||||
| Phone | 03-6434-7010 | ||||
| Related images | Click on the image to enlarge it |
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