[Exhibition] Kei Sugiyama Exhibition "About Painting Skin"

An exhibition of Kei Sugiyama's works, "About Painting Skin," will be held in front of Starbucks GINZA TSUTAYA BOOKS from (Sat) 2024 to (Fri), December 6, 2024.
 
In addition to traditional Japanese painting materials, such as mineral pigments, Kei Sugiyama's works also use familiar materials such as crayons. In addition to new two-dimensional works, this exhibition will feature expressive works such as printer tray works made from antique drawers, and three-dimensional chairs, which appear as motifs in Sugiyama's work to express the concept of "metaphor." Please come and take a look. Below is a statement from the artist about this exhibition.

[Message from the artist]

I paint using paints called "mineral pigments."
"Mineral pigments" are paints with particles, and the coarse particles used are as small as sand found in a sandbox.
These paints are mixed with an adhesive called "animal glue" and then diluted with water before use.
I mix my own paints, so it's a very slow process.
When applied thickly it has a cookie or chocolate like texture which I love.

The process begins with drawing a line with crayon.
This is a very nerve-wracking part because you can't erase the crayons.
We are aiming for the form to be as earnest as a child, but this is not easy.
I apply mineral pigments to the lines, leaving them unpainted, and repeat this process until I get a good look.

There is also a piece called "Printer Tray" that uses an antique drawer.
The wood is cut to fit the drawer compartments and then a mesh-like material called cheesecloth is stretched over the wood.
The rest of the process is pretty much the same as the one I wrote earlier (I use colored pencils to draw the lines because the parts are small). I stop when it looks good.
The printer tray is an antique, one-of-a-kind item. It has its own unique character, such as the way it has changed over the years, so we consider the subject and color to match it.

It seems impossible to reproduce the nice texture of things like cookies and chocolate, or the crayon lines and feel of a printer tray in an image.
I would be grateful if you could actually see it and experience the "painting texture."

 

"Inside the Room", 2024, 420 x 280 mm, printer tray, board, cheesecloth, mineral pigments, glue, colored pencils

 

[Artist Statement]

My motivation for creating paintings is based on the theme of "absence," which refers to the absence of something that should be there, and by depicting a concrete object, or "presence," I indirectly evoke the idea of an "object as an idea."
Representation is art that expresses real objects so that they can be recognized, but my attempt in painting is to depict a concrete subject while expressing the lingering impression of another, non-visible subject being there on the canvas. In the production of Japanese painting, I have learned the importance of sketching and the master-slave relationship between the subject and the artist (the subject is the master and the artist is the slave), but I became interested in something outside of that.
By depicting traces of human involvement, I can capture scenes in which people were certainly present, even if they do not appear on the screen. This creates a "sense of absence." My aim in my work is to create paintings in a metaphysical state, depicting real or formerly real objects that represent the presence of something that is not depicted.
In addition, in the production process, he makes full use of the technique of "metaphor" and "quotation (sampling)" from existing works of art to compose the screen, expressing the "absence" of specific characters in the work. This is merely an attempt as a "little play" and does not go beyond the "borrowing of forms" seen in Japanese culture.

Kei Sugiyama

 

[Sales Information]
The works will be on sale at GINZA TSUTAYA BOOKS and the online art marketplace "OIL by Bijutsu Techo."
In-store: Sales start from 10:30 (Sat) November 16th
Online: Sales start from 10:30 on Monday (Mon) 18th
*Depending on the pre-sales situation, sales of some artworks may end before the exhibition begins.