SHOP Taka Ishii Gallery is pleased to present A VIEW FROM A PLATFORM, a solo exhibition of paintings by Shinpei Kusanagi from December 10, 2021 to January 30, 2022. This will be his fifth solo presentation with the gallery and his first in Hong Kong, featuring 14 paintings from 2017 – 2021.

Kusanagi's paintings are characterised by the staining of untreated fabrics with layers of translucent acrylic colours. Between flows of unrestricted colours emerge wavering abstract landscapes that are both vibrant and tranquil, with details that subtly evoke natural scenes such as trees, foliage, flowers, ponds and butterflies. His paintings invite viewers to conceive imaginations and recollections of places rather than precise depictions. More than ever in recent years, the artist incorporates swift and spontaneous brushstrokes while leaving areas of the canvas bare, allowing the ambiguity of his subjects to constitute a constantly shifting picture between the here and now and an unknown elsewhere.

"At the end of the book [Kiyosumi and its Environs], I compared the place where I stand to a station platform: 'I want to stay on the station platform, which is like an intermediate area where many trains and people come and go every day, but no one stays there, and keep looking at the scenery that should be there in the here and now, which sometimes peeps out from between the fog of reality and leads to someone else."

Shinpei Kusanagi (excerpted from 2021 artist statement)

Recently in 2019, the artist moved into a new studio surrounded by windows. He was reminded of the analogy by being in a place that allowed him to observe the world around him passing by during the Covid-19 pandemic, which has become the basis of the creation of his latest works.

Press release courtesy SHOP Taka Ishii Gallery.