Altman Siegel is pleased to present Mindlake, Shinpei Kusanagi’s third solo exhibition at the gallery. Mindlake continues Kusanagi’s interest in nurturing visual movement, with both the surfaces of his compositions as well as the energy the paintings collectively generate.
As his initial method, Kusanagi stains untreated canvases with layers of translucent color. He then incorporates improvisational brushstrokes in vivid hues, markings that materialize from rapid motions and pooling stillness. The compositions hover on the surface and then move into deep space. Developing tensions that flow beyond the canvas, Kusanagi’s paintings spill into the architecture of the gallery. His uninhibited use of color offers oscillating contrast and harmony, resulting in abstracted landscapes that appear simultaneously dynamic and serene.
Kusanagi’s landscapes evoke familiar urban and natural scenes, such as sidewalks, windows, trees, foliage and flowers, clouds and the sea. Yet, they simultaneously make viewers imagine an unknown “elsewhere” that expands outside our world. His atmospheric washes of color leave the paintings devoid of specific detail, conjuring memories of time and place rather than a precise representation.
Shinpei Kusanagi (b. 1973) lives and works in Tokyo, Japan. Solo exhibitions include: Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo; Altman Siegel, San Francisco; Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery; Gallery Sora, Tokyo; Bankart Studio, Tokyo and Makii Masaru Fine Arts, Tokyo. Group exhibitions include: Carnegie Art Museum, Oxnard; Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago; XYZ collective, Tokyo; The Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo; Gallery Space Prism, Tokyo and Creation Gallery G8, Tokyo.
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