MASANORI TOMITA

Usen
February 12 - March 20, 2022

KAYOKOYUKI is pleased to announce the opening of the third solo exhibition by Tomita Masanori, "Usen", on February 12.

Japanese sake bottle, wooden capsule toy, a jungle at night, trumpet, usunoro no baka (usunoro's idiot: card game), Max's back. Stingray, stingray chopstick rest, firework objet , bat in a cave, chocolate. Stray dog, icicle, broken mirror, 100 yen shop pillar, walking posture. Seabird, Elmer's cat, the penguin's eye. Lid, bath salt, firework, grilled corn, backpack. Shoe, ear pick, ladieswear, air plant, the wall of Mashiki, monitor arm…

To collect and record the subtle motifs and scenes around us. To unfold a story. To extract them out and illustrate them down. All of these actions are repeatedly conducted with the same level of intensity. Tomita's paintings, characterized by his rich matiere and complex colors, evoke a variety of concrete images including human figures and hands, landscapes, flowers, and even broken dishes. The fragments of stories and the small puraban (plastic board) works displayed along with the paintings in this exhibition will perhaps be a hint to the artist's thinking.

However, when actually confronting his paintings, we come to realize how this "guide" was only a tenuous suggestion. The images that emerge from the multiple layers of oil paints lose their coherence and presence the moment we notice them. The assembled images oscillate as new images emerge, repeating the process of deconstruction and integration. When we realize this, we are overwhelmed by the sticking, peeling, twisting, and congealing solid materiality of the oil paints that exist before our eyes.

Tomita claims that all objects possess a "figure". When the "appearance" of the various collected objects are expressed through the painter's perception, the meanings and symbols attached to the objects dissolve, and the "appearance" of the paintings itself become visible. And thus, this is precisely none other than the "appearance" of the world perceived by painter, Masanori Tomita.

Masanori Tomita was born in 1989 in Kumamoto, Japan. Gained B.F.A. in Oil Painting from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Tokyo. Currently Lives and works in Saitama.
Recently, Tomita presented his work in "LA CONSTITUANTE" at Parliament, Paris, 2021, "Emerging Japanese Painters" at SHOP Taka Ishii Gallery, Hong Kong, 2021, solo show "Snail Traces" at KAYOKOYUKI, Tokyo, 2018, "Studio Exhibition" at Satoshi Ohno studio, Yamanashi, 2018, "Hikarie Contemporary Art Eye vol.9 supervised by Tomio Koyama -through the glasses" at Shibuya Hikarie, Tokyo, 2018, "Inner Flash" at Space Wunderkammer, Tokyo, 2014, "SLASH/ square" at gallery 5, Tokyo, 2014, "Masanori Tomita / Koji Nakazono" at TURNER GALLERY, Tokyo, 2012, solo show "mtz2" at TURNER GALLERY, Tokyo, 2012.