We are pleased to announce that gallery UG Tennoz will hold a solo exhibition of Takashi ONISHI from May 19 (Fri.) to June 3 (Sat.).
Onishi has been our gallery's exclusive artist for 12 years, since 2011.
Originally, Onishi has painted with watercolor "red" as the base color, but now he uses cinnabar, a color called "red" in iwa-enogu (natural pigment), for his works.
"Red" has been used as a color to ward off evil since ancient times in Asia, and is mainly used in shrines and temples.
Onishi finds "the unique beauty of ancient Japan" in "red" and uses it effectively in his works as his own.
While using traditional Japanese motifs, kachofugetsu, flowers, birds, wind, and the moon as his main motifs, he also incorporates expressions (clouds, etc.) found in the Rimpa school of art, and incorporates various events that he feels while living in modern society as themes in his works.
These include his childhood dream of becoming an astronaut, planets related to that dream, and his favorite video game characters.
Onishi expresses his own worldview through the symbolic use of the aforementioned clouds and the fusion of the profundity and beauty of Japanese painting with contemporary motifs.
This exhibition will showcase Onishi's work, which he has created by returning to his origins as an artist. Please come and see them!
"Connecting artworks to people, connecting people to each other through art."
galleryUG are always there for our artists.
We will grow together with the artists and support them from production to promotion.
We aim to further enrich and expand the contemporary art scene by proposing the ideal way for galleries to be.
In moments when I feel like I’m in a place independent of my surroundings,
I sometimes feel like I’m in a different time and space.
The feeling is like clouds or smoke that change shape with no regard for time
that people have to live by, and it also feels like a space of my own.
To turn, various scenes that came up in my imagination from things I encountered.
To express freedom, time and desires that are on the verge of being discarded from memory.
That is what is important, in order for me to be me and for a person to be them self.
He comes from a family of sculptors who have been practicing Buddhism for generations. Her large works are nearly life-size female figures, while her smaller works are pop and comical animal figures. Having been familiar with statues of gods and Buddha from various periods, he has not hesitated to move toward diverse expressions, and continues to move back and forth between the two energetically.
The motifs chosen by Nami OKADA for her artwork are places she has visited personally. Her artwork arouses feelings of déjà vu and of reaching across time in viewers, whose backgrounds all differ.
Each person forms a distinct impression of a given building or piece of scenery due to the differences in their memories and experiences. Such spaces thus possess a multitude of forms.
It is only when there is commonality in the interpretations of multiple viewers that a given piece of scenery takes on certain meaning.
OKADA brings life to One View by exploring the relationship between pieces of scenery that have taken on meaning due to the overlapping of such commonalities and pieces of scenery whose meaning has yet to take shape.
2F TERRADA ART COMPLEX Ⅱ, 1-32-8, Higashishinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo
8 minutes walk from Tennozu Isle Station on the Tokyo Waterfront Area Rapid Transit Rinkai Line(Exit B)
11 minutes walk from Tokyo Monorail Haneda Airport Line Tennozu Isle Station(Central Exit)
This is a base in Kyoto that opened in 2018 in order to actively conduct activities in the Kansai region. This is a reservation-only space.
Studio MOKU
This is a production studio for exclusive artists of gallery UG, which will open in 2020. It was built to approach and support artists from a long-term perspective.