Exhibition/event has ended.
Takanobu Kobayashi "Vessels"
Nishimura Gallery
Finished
SHARE
Artists
Takanobu Kobayashi
Born in Tokyo in 1960, Takanobu Kobayashi graduated from the Oil Painting Department of Aichi University of the Arts in 1986. He began to emerge in the mid-1990s and has participated in numerous exhibitions in Japan and abroad, including solo shows at the National Museum of Art, Osaka (2000), the Meguro Museum of Art (2004), and the Yokosuka Museum of Art (2014). Last year in 2022, he had a solo exhibition “Midday” at the Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, and also participated in the concurrent group exhibition “Sunset/Sunrise”, which was well received.
After graduating from university, Kobayashi went through the “Submarine” period, during which he painted for nearly nine years as a projection of himself avoiding contact with the outside world as a form of self-protection, and has since produced paintings with an emphasis on light, using universal, everyday objects such as vessels, pillows, and forests as his subject matter.
Kobayashi, who has always maintained a certain distance from current trends, has been groping steadily inside himself to find his essential expression, and his works are characterized by symmetrical compositions, mainly viewed from the front, in which commonplace objects that we see in everyday life are depicted with careful, unobtrusive strokes. While they are only simple paintings, they have a rare charm in that they bring to the surface the latent unusualness of familiar things, and in turn, make the viewer aware of the wonder of their “existence”. In other words, for example, like his “Pillow” series, which depicts a pillow as a metaphor for the “life/death” of a person who repeatedly sleeps to live, the two sides of the same coin quietly coexist, and the mystery of “existence” in this world beautifully lurks.
This exhibition consists entirely of new paintings of “vessels,” Kobayashi’s signature subject matter, which he has painted repeatedly since 1996. The vessels in Kobayashi’s paintings are simple and unadorned, with no traces of food, and seem to be commonplace, as if everyone has a concept of them in their mind.
After graduating from university, Kobayashi went through the “Submarine” period, during which he painted for nearly nine years as a projection of himself avoiding contact with the outside world as a form of self-protection, and has since produced paintings with an emphasis on light, using universal, everyday objects such as vessels, pillows, and forests as his subject matter.
Kobayashi, who has always maintained a certain distance from current trends, has been groping steadily inside himself to find his essential expression, and his works are characterized by symmetrical compositions, mainly viewed from the front, in which commonplace objects that we see in everyday life are depicted with careful, unobtrusive strokes. While they are only simple paintings, they have a rare charm in that they bring to the surface the latent unusualness of familiar things, and in turn, make the viewer aware of the wonder of their “existence”. In other words, for example, like his “Pillow” series, which depicts a pillow as a metaphor for the “life/death” of a person who repeatedly sleeps to live, the two sides of the same coin quietly coexist, and the mystery of “existence” in this world beautifully lurks.
This exhibition consists entirely of new paintings of “vessels,” Kobayashi’s signature subject matter, which he has painted repeatedly since 1996. The vessels in Kobayashi’s paintings are simple and unadorned, with no traces of food, and seem to be commonplace, as if everyone has a concept of them in their mind.
Schedule | Nov 7 (Tue) 2023-Dec 9 (Sat) 2023 Opening Hours Information
| ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fee | Free | ||||
| Website | http://www.nishimura-gallery.com/小林孝亘 うつわたち/ | ||||
| Venue | Nishimura Gallery | ||||
| Location | 9F Nihombashi Nikko Bldg., 2-10-8 Nihombashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 103-0027 | ||||
| Access | 2 minute walk from exit B4 at Nihombashi Station on the Ginza line, 2 minute walk from exit C4 at Nihombashi Station on the Tozai line, 2 minute walk from exit D4 at Nihombashi Station on the Toei Asakusa line. | ||||
| Phone | 03-5203-2800 | ||||
| Related images | Click on the image to enlarge it   |
Back to Articles
SHARE
No comments yet