Exhibition
in Tokyo / Japan
-
- © Hiroto Tomonaga
Kosaku Kanechika Kyobashi is pleased to present Hiroto Tomonaga’s solo exhibition “Lightning”. Hiroto Tomonaga captures transitory moments in which things he is looking at appear to him ever so briefly as something else, and strives to render this in painting. In his practice, this change that occurs before his eyes gradually translates into paint on the canvas, becoming fixed on the surface. While the resulting paintings are fixed, they feel as if they might resume moving once again, and express the sense of helplessness the artist himself feels regarding the world he sees before him.
Tomonaga’s paintings have a distinctive surface texture. He creates a surface that, while not physically thick, possesses depth, by building the paint up with the brush, kneading it, or layering it. There seems to be an intensity to the canvas, almost as if it were pulsating or breathing, but also somehow heading towards oblivion, and yet in a way that is by no means subtle. Seeing his paintings in the flesh produces a much more powerful impression than seeing them on a screen.
Tomonaga carries a notebook, briefly sketching memorable landscapes and noting down words that he comes across in his daily life, then ruminating on them. When this act extends to his painting practice, the images and ideas in his mind come into being, using the method described above, hovering and wavering, but without taking clear form.
The indeterminate nature of Tomonaga’s art defies language and earthly logic, unsettling the world in which we live comfortable, albeit constrained, lives. In recent works, he has been building a sense of fullness that seems to jump off the painting surface, achieved by fixing onto a single canvas the numerous reactions that result from making different elements collide. This show, “Lightning,” will present about ten new paintings.
Hiroto Tomonaga was born in 1997 in Saga Prefecture, Japan, and is currently based in Tokyo. In 2020, he graduated from the Department of Painting at Musashino Art University, and received a Master of Fine Arts from the same institution in 2022. He has presented in solo exhibitions including “Balance” (gallery Binosha, 2022), “Flashing Point” (Gallery Water, 2021), and notable group exhibitions include “FACE2022” (SOMPO Museum, 2022), and “Awkward Feeling” (YOD TOKYO, 2022). In 2022 he was a finalist for FACE2022, and received a judge’s prize at Art Award Tokyo Marunouchi.
Gallery hours Tue-Sat 11 am – 7 pm
Closed on Sun, Mon and National Holidays
Exhibition Duration 22.03. – 02.05.2025
Location:
Kosaku Kanechika Kyobashi
Toda Building 3F, 1-7-1 Kyobashi, Chuo-ku
104-0031 Tokyo
Japan
