KISHO KAKUTANI

Whitestone Gallery Taipei is pleased to present Realm of Dispersal, a solo exhibition by Japanese artist Kisho KAKUTANI, marking his first solo presentation in Taiwan. Centered on the two major series Frosted Window and Curtain, the exhibition explores the exclusive realm of dispersal between the “visible” and the “invisible,” inviting viewers to reconsider what constitutes a “landscape of reality” in an age of image saturation. The exhibition runs from November 22 to December 27, 2025, with the opening reception at 4:00 p.m. on November 22, attended by the artist himself.

Born in Kobe, Japan, in 1993, Kisho KAKUTANI completed the doctoral course in Japanese Painting and received Ph.D. in Fine Arts at the Tokyo University of the Arts in 2022. He describes his practice as “a tool that enables imagination,” using highly water-based materials to evoke an atmosphere of ambiguity. His tranquil paintings capture fleeting moments of everyday life while subtly reflecting the inner transformations of contemporary Japanese society. In 2020, he received the 46th Sogakai Spring Exhibition Award.

KAKUTANI’s creative process begins with snapshots taken in daily life and during his travels. He blurs parts of these images to create hazy, indistinct scenes that transform into what he calls “barely visible landscapes.” This process serves as both a confirmation of the photographer’s own presence and an inquiry into the unseen. By reconstructing the instantaneous record of photography through painting, KAKUTANI builds a space that exists between reality and imagination, a threshold where visual and psychological perceptions intersect.

In the Frosted Window and Curtain series, the compositions resemble the texture of frosted glass or the surface of a curtain, introducing layers of visual “noise” that obscure the gaze. These obstructions blur the boundaries of perception and invite the viewer’s imagination to complete the image, creating a subtle exchange between the artwork and the act of looking. KAKUTANI believes that in a world overwhelmed by ceaseless visual flow, reality within the artwork can only emerge when the viewer’s perception becomes an active part of it.

For the artist, painting is both an approach toward reality and a means of maintaining distance from it. His works embody the changes of time and environment, allowing reality and the painted world to intertwine and reveal traces of memory and emotion that belong to a particular moment.