The portraits that Hideaki Kawashima keeps on painting may seem like an abstract image of human soul that lost flesh and blood. We feel the serene comfort as if we are in a place for worship, while at the same time feel the strain of being stared, like the deepest part of your heart goggled at; all the while we are intrigued by the emphatic gaze and the juxtaposed lightness of the head, afloat in a monochromatic void. Kawashima who undertook two years of Tendai sect of Esoteric Buddhist training at the Hieizan Enryakuji Temple, chose painting to be his daily routine. The artist paints the androgynous heads that are like someone possessed by the facial expression ghost, gas if they were my portraitsh. These portraits, repeatedly and obstinately painted as they metamorphose in various semblances, could be the artistfs chronicle of looking intently at gself,h this demon which can never be obliterated no matter how one pursued the universal truth.
We will be showing 8-10 new paintings. According to the artists, g(They) seem to act out these various expressions, keeping more distance (from me) in this new series.h The title gwaveringh is a word with a nuance that suggests onefs staggering mind, or being in the shaky state. Please come see the secretive experiments of the artist whose work may seem like a product of him posing at the mirror inside of his heart.
Hideki Kawashima was born in Aichi Prefecture in 1969. He graduated from the Tokyo Zokei University in 1991. Currently he lives and works in Tokyo. This is his third exhibition with Tomio Koyama Gallery, following the second one in 2005 three years ago and the first in 2003.
Selected group shows include gLifeh at the Art Tower Mito in 2006. gIdol!h at the Yokohama Museum of Art in 2006, gLittle Boyh at the Japan Society NY, curated by Takashi Murakami in 2006, gJapanese Experience Inevitableh at the Museum der Moderne Salzburg in 2004.
He shows in many institutions internationally and domestically, and his most recent exhibition was in Pocheon Asia Biennale in Korea this year.
Tomio Koyama Gallery
Contact information for press materials : Tomoko Omori tel / 813-3642-4090
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