Tricolore 2022　HA Myoung Eun・TOMURA Shigeki・NIZOE Marina

Dec. 9 [Fri.] ― Dec. 23 [Sat.] 2022 11:00-19:00
Gallery closed Sun., Mon., and national holidays.

*Click images to view in original size

We will hold an exhibition of three selected artists.

The Korean artist HA Myoung-Eun (b.1980) reinterprets and reconstructs well-known pop-art images representing the 20th century. We will exhibit some of the works that crystalize these iconic pieces into her own style.

TOMURA Shigeki (b.1951) of Morioka is a landscape artist. He deliberately carves into each line something invisible but undeniably there, entrusting it to the natural passage of time and atmosphere.

Okinawa's NIZOE Marina (b.1993) works with the singular theme of "paradise of flowers and birds in Ryukyuan painting". She tackles tradition and revolution, with her paradises incorporate auspicious subjects of tradition into modern Ryukyuan paintings.

【HA Myoung-Eun Statement】
The search for a new pictorial expression has always been a fatal issue for artists. This has been especially true of my work in the way that it is post-painting, as I have been trying to shed form. I am researching new formal and discursive alternatives to medium through my work as I experiment with new mediums, work to interpret them, and integrate mediums from other fields into the realm of pure painting. The forms I have focused on heavily in my work so far are the visual and spatial 3D figures. Although many of my works have pop art-like vivid lines and colors, you can tell that this is only an external approach and that there is a marked difference between the concept of the work process. The repetitions of the sculpture, while being a painting which has the characteristics of a flat work through the repetitions of the flat surfaces, generate a sense of space, but within this space, the artist is engaged in the creative process of inviting participation, leading the viewer's gaze from line to line in order to search for something on the interior.

The "A Master piece of Painting series" is a method that uses contemporary cultural icons (in part or in whole), and is ultimately a repetetive phenomenon of homage that ties together the past and the present. The images of works that have been symbolized throughout diverse cultures are reinterpreted and rerepresented through an original figurative language. Through this creative process, the past and the present are made to have an intimate and direct relationship through the work, and at the same time are involved in a recollection of the past and a reflection on the present.
The homage method of using images of famous paintings has already appeared in countless European, American, and other global art, and the intersection of all of these realms cannot be possible in the realm of painting alone. The art of "simulacrum", where reinterpreted works are more notorious than the original, is appearing in the 21st century art market as dozens of different works each day. This phenomenon is sometimes explained through the limits of the birth of pure new work, or perhaps because the homage method, which provides visual stability to the public over a half-baked new thing, is easier for both artists and consumers.
Art history is usually created by the cumulative process of the past. It has also been described as "the previous work inviting the next". I also apply a similar concept to my own expression. If culture is a field of expression that reflects the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, morals, and customs of the time, then my creative activity is most closely and directly an expression of a concept that recognizes a cultural icon crystalized by the most passionate cultural tendencies of the surrounding present.

Thoughts on the act of drawing
"BRUSH" contains the meaning of the painter's tool, their action (brushing), and the product of their action (brushstroke).
This might be an attempt to speak to the essence of a matter of course. After several years of creative activity, I began to wonder about the process by which an artist creates something out of nothing, and what the most important part of the creative process is, and while grasping my center as an artist in a deluge of images, thinking about the creative process, I tried to visualize this.
I believe that the very act of painting is in itself a work of art, and a work of art is the product of the fusion of that time and various media. I would like to continue thinking on that essense as I continue my work.

【TOMURA Shigeki Statement】
At the end of a long winter, when the long-frozen snow beings to melt, I always start to feel like I am in the midst of an unending change wrought by time.
It is because we know that nature will bring the harsh winter to pass, and we know that life will return, that we can wait, and we continue to live here in the northern country.
I cannot help but think that there is something unnatural in the way that change brought about by human conscience slowly brings about irreversible results.
I want to follow the natural passage of time as best as possible.
The nature that I've seen through my gaze as an artist has taught me how to live that way.

【NIZOE Marina Statement】
What did the people of Ryukyu think, and communicate, and pray for? I draw images of Utopia as I think of the Okinawa of the future, but the ideal of Ryukyu times is surely different from the ideal of Okinawa today. Despite that, I think there are things that remain the same. I want to reclaim the pride of Ryukyu, a nation which competed with many other countries and cultivated a vibrant culture despite its small size. We should not fight with weapons, but cross the world with the power of art. It's difficult to make the invisible take a form, but I think that by following the traces of the historical Ryukyu people, I will find a hint as to how to connect the hearts people of the world through art. Honestly absorb the things you enjoy, learn through trial and error, and sublimate that into something unique. The divine island I seek is lit with the most vivid light and darkest shadow and is inhabited by all living things. While searching for that, I paint of the day my works will become a vessel to bridge the world.

■HA Myoung-Eun （b.1980）
HA is one of the new generation of artists from Korea. She reconstructs 20th century pop art to create unique works from a variety of materials. In 2011 she graduated from Sungshin Women's University Graduate School, Department of Western Painting.

■TOMURA Shigeki（b.1951）
Born in Hachinohe City. Graduated Iwate University Department of Art. Began seriously printmaking in 1984. In 1989 and 1991, received awards at Small Graphic Forms Exhibition in Lodz (Poland), and from there continued to gain recognition overseas. Has displayed his work in many countries including Russia, the UK, Germany, and the USA.

■NIZOE Marina（b.1993）
Born 1993 in Chatan Town, Okinawa. 2010, enrolled in Okinawa Prefectural University of the Arts with a focus in Japanese Painting. In her third year, began researching Ryukyu painting. 2021, completed her PhD at the same school and now works there as part time teacher while being active as an artist in an out of Okinawa.

Exhibition View

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Tricolore 2022 HA Myoung Eun・TOMURA Shigeki・NIZOE Marina

Tricolore 2022　HA Myoung Eun・TOMURA Shigeki・NIZOE Marina