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New Positions 2021


Japanese Abstract Paintings: Hidekazu Tanaka, Shigeru Nishikawa and Yasuko Hirano

January 16th - February 20th, 2021
taguchi fine art, Tokyo


























Taguchi Fine Art is pleased to announce the 2nd "New Positions" show introducing Japanese emerging artists. This time three painters, Hidekazu Tanaka, Shigeru Nishikawa and Yasuko Hirano will be presented.

Hidekazu Tanaka was born in Hyogo prefecture in 1979. He graduated from the visual design course of Kyoto College of Art in 2000. His first solo show was at Gallery Coco in Kyoto in 1999. After transferring to the department of information design at Kyoto University of Art and Design, he studied at Chelsea College of Art and Design, London in 2001, where he took a foundation course in painting. He continued to exhibit his works at galleries in Kyoto and Tokyo after his returning to Japan. Withdrew from the doctoral course in oil painting at Kyoto City University of Arts in 2018. Currently living and working in Kyoto.
He has been consistently trying experimental examination of abstract painting using very unique combined technique. For instance, he duplicates on canvas his original impulsive strokes or accidental forms made by himself and then arranges their forms and reconstructs the space with them. Or he projects on canvas some fragments from his own old works and then traces, repeats or rotates them to produce his new paintings. Or he throws lumps of the paint to the canvas from a distance and moves them according certain objective rules, and then adds some associated forms to them.
Invoking contemporary methodologies as sampling technique in the musical field and the concept of layer in the image processing software as Photoshop, he succeeds in creating spontaneous, rhythmic and very beautiful paintings, dealing issues of conscious and unconscious or time in the painting.

I believe that this method of looping and sharing images and materials between works, which at first glance could be recognized as an abandonment of creativity, raises various questions about the concept of "abstraction", such as the issue of consciousness and unconsciousness, time in relation to the pictorial space, and the re-editability of paintings, in terms of the relationship between works and materials, and between the artist himself and the viewer. Hidekazu Tanaka


Shigeru Nishikawa was born in Gifu Prefecture in 1977. Withdrew from the Environmental Design Course in the Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering at Kinki University in 1997 and completed the Painting Course of the Osaka College of Art in 2002. In 2007 stayed in the U.S. for a year and assisted in the painting course at the Triform Camp Hill Community, a community for the disabled and able-bodied in New York State. He has had solo exhibitions in Nara, Kyoto, and Tokyo, and is currently based in Nara City.
Nishikawa has been experimenting with abstract expression using buildings and structures under construction, renovation, or demolition, covered with fabric-like sheets that suddenly appear in the city as the subject. The works in this "Shield House" series are painted with bold brushstrokes that depart from realism and reproduction, an appropriate technique to the theme, that is, the fluidity of all things and their creation and disappearance.
From the beginning of this series, he has been aware of the similarities between these works and the works by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, known as wrapping artists. The recent passing away of Christo prompted Nishikawa to create a new series, "Hommage to Christo and Jeanne -Claude".

It is the beginning of a new building or the end of a building that used to be there. The sheet covering the building might be a thin membrane that separates the forgetting of the past from the new memories. What will people throw away, what will they forget, what will they see, and what will they seek ? On the other side of the painted temporary enclosures in my painting, there is the changing landscape, the transformation of the world, the renewal of the present, and the continuation of the future. By wrapping the actual buildings, Christo and Jeanne-Claude have been able to emphasize the presence and historical background of the buildings themselves. On the other hand, I see the covered state of the buildings as the "dynamics" of the changing landscape and the shifting environment, and try to make them visible by depicting them in my paintings. I feel that my work shares some similarities with theirs, but at the same time, there are more than a few differences. I hope that creating a hommage to their work will give me a good opportunity to reconsider my "Shield House" series and develop it further. Shigeru Nishikawa


Born in Toyama Prefecture in 1985, Yasuko Hirano graduated from painting course at Kyoto Seika University in 2007. She held her first solo show at Masayoshi Suzuki Gallery in Okazaki, Aichi Prefecture in 2009 and was selected as a participant in VOCA exhibition in 2015. Having exhibited in Kyoto and Tokyo, she currently lives and works in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture.
Since she was a university student, Hirano has been creating color field abstract paintings with multiple thin layers of paint. She considers her work as an attempt to make familiar landscapes, past memories, and experiences objectified on the canvas through the act of painting, to develop them until they acquire autonomy, and to connect them with the present reality. In the process of painting, she responds to the "call" that comes from the pictorial space, which is not based on logical thought, separated from meaning and language, and to the "gaze" that sometimes painted as a round black dots. Her quest to find a new perspective in her painting that is different from her own is reflected in the new works to be installed this time.

By looking at an ordinary landscape, scenery, or object, I feel a sense of unity with those object or am in contact with something like an intuition. It comes suddenly like a breeze, and I find myself stared back from it. Embracing the recurrence and preciousness of memory, I create works in order to give strength to the event while keeping language and meaning away from it. Yasuko Hirano


Although all these three artists are working with abstract language in common, their attitude are totally different. We believe their works and activities would enrich Japanese painting in the future.

From 17:00 through 19:00 on the opening day, Saturday, Janurary 16th, we will have a reception for these three artists. Looking forward to your visit.

*This show is realized by the cooperation with Gallery OUT of PLACE (Shigeru Nishikawa)