Norio Imai Exhibition
Galerie Richard
This event has ended.
Galerie Richard presents Norio Imai in his New York debut solo exhibition Perspective in White from February 13th through March 29th. The artist (b. Osaka, 1946) joined the Gutai Art Association in 1965 and was the youngest member of the avant-garde collective of post-war era Japan. Imai gained early recognition for his white monochrome works that featured a sculptural quality. The artist uses the canvas in a way that allows him to experiment and develop painting in three dimensions. By doing so, he plays with light by adding tonality to the monochrome and creates fluid and organic curved lines with inherent sensuality, serenity and peace.
The exhibition features historical works and recent works created in the 2000’s. This is an opportunity to discover fourteen works made in 1964-65, that were destroyed and recreated by the artist with ready-made objects and, molded three-dimensional objects between the stretcher and the white painted canvas. Some of the molds are surrounded by white painted tacks around the object for figurative visual effect and for making the emphasis on the bulges on surface. Eliminating materiality is what he focused on in the series of early white pieces from his Gutai period.
The exhibition features six paintings entitled White Ceremony with different shaped canvases originally made in 1966 and 1967. They have been in high demanded due to their sensual reminiscence of feminine shapes, which deftly reflect “one of the most important changes that are taking place in our culture. The dimension in which we live today is increasingly shifting towards the feminine. Fluid, matrixial qualities are gaining importance over unambiguous masculinity. I would describe Imai’s work as maternal. In its complete pureness it is pregnant with possibilities.” The canvases become organic bulbous shapes, and white immaterial ethereal spaces. Like Matsutani and Shirley Kaneda’s paintings, these shapes seem to form spontaneously and therefore look similar to shapes we encounter in nature. This work also highlights the soft aesthetic that emerged in the 60’s inspired by the technology of the Cold War Space Race. The influence was widespread, offering sumptuous aerodynamic curves to art, design, fashion, and architecture.
Media
Schedule
from February 13, 2014 to April 26, 2014