Tomoo SEKI / Real/Red Red Blossoms blue-and-white (SEIKA)

Gallery OUT of PLACE TOKIO is pleased to announce Tomoo SEKI's upcoming exhibition, "Real/Red - Red Blossoms" "blue-and-white (SEIKA)"

For our upcoming exhibition, we are pleased to present two of Tomoo SEKI's series in combination: "Real/Red," depicting the scenery of Asian plants in Cadmium Red; and the recently undertaken "blue-and-white(SEIKA)" which uses the mineral
pigment of Azurite.

artist statement
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Red Blossoms and "blue-and-white (SEIKA)"

Is it possible for a local expression to offer common ground to everyone in the world?

In the "Real/Red" series, I have used an overhead projector indoors to paint flowers and blossoms as motifs representing Japan. The drawings in my newest series, "blue-and-white," were created directly in front of the actual landscape. For this series, I used natural Azurite because I wanted to realize through my artwork, the blue color created by cobalt oxide in Chinese porcelain that I greatly admire.

A recent shift in my "Real/Red" series is the inclusion of "surfaces of perforated color." These are round-shaped perforations on colored surfaces that show greater lightness. The colored surfaces without perforations attempt to enclose the flattened surface, while those with perforations reveal an inversion of lightness working to spread sideways. It was my hope in doing so to further develop this series, taking into consideration the "lightness" between surfaces in early Cubism.

Gold leaf has been applied to the matte framing of the "blue-and-white" drawings. The combination of Azurite and gold leaf was common in Momoyama Era paneled paintings. Especially with their moveable and supportive function, they were meant to decorate an interior space. I want to express the splendor of the Momoyama Era aesthetic through this combination of blue and gold. By evoking the rise of this aesthetic at this surge of time, I want to bring back this decorative role to contemporary space as well.

For this exhibition, I include both the "Real/Red" and "blue-and-white(SEIKA)" series, where the red, blue, and gold colors are a synergy of "East-West." In doing so, I wish for the birth of a contemporary and universal space.

Text by Tomoo SEKI
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