PROFILE

Born in Osaka Prefecture in 1987. Completed a degree course in Art Communication at Kyoto University of Art and Design Graduate School in 2016. His work has been shown primarily in Asia, but also in places like New York and Basel, Switzerland. He creates works that reexamine the type of Japanese paintings that were interrupted by the modern “nihonga,” which had been established by strictly adhering to academic skill and the hierarchical system.

DATE

2019

MEDIUM

natural pigments, ink, gold, glue, acrylic, Japanese paper

DIMENSIONS

H200×W180×D3cm (each works)

STATEMENT

I create art with the idea that we could perhaps reexamine the type of Japanese paintings that were interrupted by the modern “nihonga,” which had been established by strictly adhering to academic skill and the hierarchical system. How did they think Japanese painting that should have flowed without impediment would connect to the modern era? What was it that we Japanese thought were the paintings with the most “reality”? These are the kinds of questions I try to answer in my work.

ABOUT MUSIC AND ART

Paintings do not generally change based on how one feels and what the situation is like at the time they are published. In contrast, musical concerts and the like have arrangements, mistakes, and even sometimes influence from the audience. These kinds of factors can only exist as they do in that particular moment. For this reason, I have a deep fascination with people who prepare the conditions to a specific point and play or sing a particular sound that could only be produced in that moment. I get a feeling of space and time that is not present in my pictures. But at the same time, when I am stringing together concepts in my work on beaches or in rice paddies, I hear the sound of the waves or the song of the insects, or sound of a rushing train or the birds’ chirping. When I feel that these sounds run together and form multiple layers, I am reminded that painting and music are indeed one and the same. I think that, maybe, both painting and music are meant to allow us to realize the things that we had until now only known in words, by listening closely and experiencing that which is alive now.

Ryo Shinagawa PLAYLIST