HIROTO TOMONAGA

Hiroto Tomonaga captures transitory moments in which things he is looking at ever so briefly appear to him as something else, and strives to render this in painting. In his work, this change that occurs before his eyes gradually translates into paint on the canvas, becoming fixed on the surface. While the resulting paintings are fixed, they feel as if they might resume moving once again, and express the sense of helplessness the artist himself feels regarding the world he sees before him.

Upon close inspection, one immediately notices something distinctive about the surface texture of his paintings. At times slick and at others coarse, it shows the artist’s strong fixation with texture. Tomonaga creates a surface that, while not physically thick, possesses depth, building the paint up with the brush, kneading it, or layering it. There seems to be an intensity to the canvas, almost as if it were pulsating or breathing, but also somehow heading towards oblivion, and yet in a way that is by no means subtle. Seeing his paintings with one’s own eyes produces a much more powerful impression than seeing them on a screen.

Tomonaga often writes down words that come to mind or terms that fascinate him in a notebook. When this act extends to his painting practice, the images and ideas in his mind come into being, using the method described above, as something that hovers and wavers, but without taking clear form.

The indeterminate nature of Tomonaga’s art defies language and earthly logic, upsetting the world in which we live comfortable, albeit constrained, lives.

This show presents five recent works. At this time, we cordially invite you to attend Changeable Sight at KOSAKU KANECHIKA.