E’Wao Kagoshima Exhibition

Brennan & Griffin

poster for E’Wao Kagoshima Exhibition
[Image: E’Wao Kagoshima "The Last Spart" (1996) Oil and acrylic on canvas board 20 x 32 in.]

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Brennan & Griffin presents a solo exhibition by E’Wao Kagoshima.

On view will be a selection of twelve diptych paintings Kagoshima created during the early to mid 90’s. These historical works, described as Etymological Paintings have not been shown in over 20 years.

Kagoshima is known for pop-surreal paintings, drawings and collages that span from the cartoonish and erotic to realist. Grotesque biomorphic figures rendered in pastels and paint populate his wide ranging output, pulled from his autobiography and locale, as an individual coming of age in post-war Japan.

Kagoshima’s Etymological Paintings strive to make visible the complexity of visual communication in an increasingly solipsistic global environment. The diptychs are created by two conjoined canvases, the left canvas being an impastoed gestural abstraction, in the manner of Joan Mitchell or Willem DeKooning, and the right, a high key graphic icon, representing various biomorphic abstractions and the animal world. These pairings become less jarring or abrupt as the viewer, naturally, starts to compare and contrast the imagery, and comes to see the relationship as a profound study into the ever deepening rabbit hole of personal understanding. Are the icons meant to convey the meaning of the abstract expression of the thick slashes and cuts of paint on the left? Or do they represent the same thing, the only difference being syntax? The genius of these paintings, is the big Ask, with no real Reveal, an endless, almost desperate game of optical cat and mouse.

Kagoshima was born 1945 in Niigata, Japan. Working in Japan until 1976, He received an MFA from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts in 1969, and moved to New York in 1976. He has had solo exhibitions at The New Museum, New York; Nagai Gallery, Tokyo; The Box, Los Angeles, Greenspon Gallery, New York; Mitchell Algus Gallery, New York; Galerie Gregor Staiger, Zurich and a two person show at Office Baroque, Brussels. Kagoshima has been included in exhibitions at Sculpture Center, New York; Contemporary Art Centre, Lithuania; Jewish Museum, New York; MoMA PS1, New York; and the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London.

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Schedule

from October 27, 2019 to December 22, 2019

Opening Reception on 2019-10-27 from 18:00 to 20:00

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