Akihiko Sugiura | Jonathan Ferrara Gallery | 29.05.2019
“While my artwork certainly takes the form of painting, it is not painting in the traditional sense. It represents something, yet does not represent anything. There is meaning, and yet it is meaningless.”
Akihiko Sugiura
ARTIST IN GALLERY PRIZE
Artist: Akihiko Sugiura
Location: Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, New Orleans – United States
Opening: June 1st 2019
Exhibition: May 29th – July 15th 2019
The solo exhibition “KYORAI (去来): Coming and Going” by the Japanese artist Akihiko Sugiura(Hyogo, 1979) stems from the collaboration between Arte Laguna Prize and JONATHAN FERRARA GALLERY (New Orleans), which has selected Akihiko as the winner of the Special Prize “Artist in Gallery” for the 13th edition of Arte Laguna Prize.
The exhibition can be visited from May 29th to July 15th in the gallery’s spaces in New Orleans (USA). The official opening will take place on Saturday June 1st from 6 to 9 p.m. JONATHAN FERRARA GALLERY was immediately drawn to the artist’s dream-like figurative paintings. His body of work rejects conventional views of painting and his moving, imaginative and slightly disturbing works challenge traditional ideas of portraiture through their employment of landscape and even abstract motifs. At the same time, the artist wants to push viewers back into reality through the inclusion of blank spaces and the arrangement of actual materials in various places around the canvas.
The gallery has always sought to exhibit works by innovative artists who push the limits of their medium and style, and Akihiko’s work accomplishes just that. In his paintings Akihiko depicts characters that represent various modern-day questions such as: Are we alive or dead? What is gender? Are humans something else? Real or virtual? As the artist states: “In my work, there is also a feeling of being beckoned to return to a world of imagination. Everything can be interpreted in many ways. Such a view is connected to and inspired by the philosophical and Zen Buddhist perception of the world”. Artworks take on different meanings when viewed by people and there are not incorrect interpretations, as art cannot escape the gaze and interpretation of the people who are appreciating it.
With the special prizes “Artist in Gallery” Arte Laguna Prize created a format of collaboration with international galleries that gives them the opportunity to view a large array of artistic proposals selected by an international jury and gives artists the chance to have a solo exhibition in prestigious galleries worldwide.
KYORAI (去来): Coming and Going from 29.05 to 15.07.2019 at JONATHAN FERRARA GALLERY – opening 01.06.2019
