ANJU MICHELE

—Chie Sumiyoshi

Born in 1989, Anju Michele currently lives and works between Kyoto and Venice. Thanks to his unparalleled creativity since his childhood, the artist captures the scenes in front of him and instantaneously converts the information into the act of painting. His discernment in terms of grasping various forms and his speed has been more sophisticated than ever, and it has become the foundation of his art practice. It is difficult to pursue one’s true self and expression while being detached from the conceptual world. However, Anju could create his art easily under such conditions as if light and wind passed by plants and flowers by leaving their marks on them.

Imaginarium, the title of his first solo exhibition at ShugoArts, is a word created by Anju, meshing ‘imagination’ and ’-arium,’ which represents a place in Latin. Anju Micheleʼs paintings, in which his imagination gives birth to his creation, implies the fact that we humans are innately free.

In circle, which was just completed this March, Anju painted circles, so softly that they look like they are floating, on a piece of aluminum paper that he has utilized lately. Those circles seem to be wide-open mouths, which could be entrances to various spatio-temporal worlds, or planets observing our world from different dimensions; they are beautiful as they exist there. In this exhibition, the artist presents close to thirty-three new artworks all at once. Please visit us to experience Anju Micheleʼs Imaginarium.

Born in Venice in 1989, Michele currently lives and works in Kyoto. He has produced two-dimensional artworks focusing primarily on natural elements such as the ocean, mountains, stars, the moon, plants, animals and minerals. ‘By utilizing hearing impairment as his special physical characteristic and his soul sheltered by his self-consciousness’ (Chie Sumiyoshi, 2020), the artist has carefully observed reality and transformed it into his own images in order to produce his paintings with no hesitancy, which have become parts of his body and mind as he diligently paints every day. Currently, he is developing his original painting expression using silver paper, which is used to make silver thread for producing Nishijin-ori (a traditional textile in the Nishijin district of Kyoto), as his canvas.

Selected exhibitions: Imaginarium, ShugoArts, Tokyo (2020); VOCA The Vision of Contemporary Art 2020, The Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo (2020); Yokohama Triennale, Yokohama Museum of Art , Kanagawa (2014); About Freedom, TRAUMARIS, Tokyo (2011); Kagemi of love, HIGURE 17-15cas, Tokyo (2009); Inganzia, Cube gallery, Venice (2005).