Shinpei Kusanagi: A view from a platform
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"In 2013, I published a book called 'Kiyosumi and its environs' (Kyuryudo publishing).
At the end of the book, I compared the place where I stand to a station platform: 'I want to stay on the station platform, which is like an intermediate area where many trains and people come and go every day, but no one stays there, and keep looking at the scenery that should be there in the here and now, which sometimes peeps out from between the fog of reality and leads to someone else.' In hindsight, when I wrote that, I think it was a kind of statement of determination from myself at that time, when I was trying to put an end to my illustration work and concentrate on painting.
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Two years ago, I moved to a new studio. The new studio is on the fifth floor of a building, surrounded by windows on three sides, with good sunlight and a nice view from the windows. To put it simply, I like it very much. Even though the world has stopped moving with the Covid-19 epidemic, my daily life has not changed much. As I went back and forth between home and studio, painting in silence, and occasionally looking out the window through the glass, the idea that this was like standing on the platform of the station I had thought of at that time suddenly came to my mind and stayed with me.
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I had no plans for a solo exhibition or an exhibition, but when the pictures that I had drawn like a diary had come together to some extent, I was asked to participate in this online exhibition. I had been feeling inadequate with the online exhibition, as I didn't have to think about the installation or the composition of the exhibition, but perhaps the web is also a medium that doesn't exist in reality, but is connected to the rest of the world, like an intermediate realm. If you think about it that way, everything seems to be vaguely connected, which is why I chose the title 'A view from a platform' for the exhibition. Eight years have passed since I wrote that book. The world situation, the surrounding environment, the place where I live, and my family structure have all changed dramatically. Yet, I still find myself looking at the scenery as much as ever."
—Shinpei Kusanagi
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Shinpei Kusanagi, "Your Back" (detail), 2021
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Shinpei Kusanagi, "The Ally 2019" (detail), 2019
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Shinpei Kusanagi, "Clear Voice" (detail), 2021
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Shinpei Kusanagi, "Dark Clouds" (detail), 2021
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Shinpei Kusanagi, "The Ally" (detail), 2020
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View from Shinpei Kusanagi's studio
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Shinpei Kusanagi (b.1973) lives and works in Tokyo, Japan. Solo exhibitions include: Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo; Altman Siegel, San Francisco; Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery; Gallery Sora, Tokyo; Bankart Studio, Tokyo and Makii Masaru Fine Arts, Tokyo. Group exhibitions include: Carnegie Art Museum, Oxnard; Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago; XYZ collective, Tokyo; The Ueno Royal Museum,Tokyo; Gallery Space Prism, Tokyo and Creation Gallery G8, Tokyo.
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For more information please contact Altman Siegel at (415) 576-9300 or info@altmansiegel.com.
