Roof Museum is pleased to present "Sculpture," a solo exhibition by artist Hiro Sugiyama.
Hiro Sugiyama has exhibited his works at fine art exhibitions both in Japan and abroad, while also curating various exhibitions. In recent years, he has been creating his "Black Painting" series, which depicts the "space" between abstract and concrete by silhouetteizing historical paintings in black and then reducing the level of abstraction by adding texture to the silhouette, in order to bring representational painting closer to abstraction.
This will be Hiro Sugiyama's second solo exhibition at the venue, showcasing approximately 40 pieces from a new series that began with his interest in African sculpture. Enjoy the forms expressed in the monochrome pictorial space. Original Hiro Sugiyama x Lurf Museum merchandise will also be available for purchase at the venue and in the online store. The exhibition will run from Friday, April 12, 2024 to Monday, May 13, 2024.
Hiro Sugiyama's works can be found here>>
Exhibition overview
Hiro Sugiyama Solo Exhibition "Sculpture"
Dates | April 12th (Fri) - May 13th (Mon) 2024 *Irregular holidays Venue | Lurf Museum / Roof Museum 2F
Time｜11:00 - 19:00
Address: Roob1, 28-13 Sarugakucho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0033
Admission | Free
statement
Since ancient Greece, Western art has valued realistic expression. This continued until the Post-Impressionist movement in the 20th century. On the other hand, African art, for religious reasons, has rejected the depiction of things that do not exist in nature. Rather than striving for realistic reality, it has been considered important to emphasize spirituality and express the images and energy that the objects themselves possess. African sculptures, which are based on these concepts, feature distorted shapes, exaggerated masks, and intricate geometric forms, forms that were previously unthinkable within Western art.
I became interested in African sculptures, which express the invisible energy that they possess, and began creating the "Sculpture" series.
Up until now, I have used paintings by Van Gogh, Picasso, and Matisse as the subject matter of my work. By outlining the floral and human motifs in these paintings and filling in the gaps with black, I erase all other information, including the colors, details of faces and clothing, and other elements. This action increases the level of abstraction of the painting, in other words, bringing a representational painting closer to abstract painting. While outlines exist in motifs drawn on two-dimensional surfaces like paintings, outlines do not exist in three-dimensional objects that exist in the world. Neither Greek sculptures nor African woodcarvings have outlines. Two-dimensionalizing these three-dimensional objects and forcing outlines into them significantly distorts the information contained within them. Furthermore, filling in the gaps within these forced outlines with black further erases the information contained within the object itself. In other words, the level of abstraction increases several levels, bringing the representational painting closer to abstraction.
In this series, we will be introducing paintings based on African sculptures that express the energy inherent in the objects themselves, sculptures based on the realistic expression that has been used in Western art since ancient Greece, and sculptures from contemporary art. Look at the ``shapes'' depicted in these paintings, and try to imagine the original ``sculptures'' themselves.
Hiro Sugiyama
