ARTIST

Shinji Ogawa

INFORMATION

Shinji Ogawa - Rondo of the Wind -

March 3 (Mon) - March 15 (Sat), 2025 11:00-18:00 Open daily

ATSUHIKO SUEMATSU GALLERY will be holding Shinji Ogawa's solo exhibition " Rondo of the Wind " from March 3rd to 15th, 2025.

Over the past 30 years since presenting "Without You" in 1994, he has produced works that incorporate innovative concepts in contemporary art, such as the "Without You" series, in which he erases the characters from famous paintings and uses the resulting void as an extension of the surrounding space, the "Perfect World" series, in which he cleverly duplicates new figures and buildings on old postcards, and the "Behind You" series, which depicts imaginary landscapes that unfold behind the central characters. These works can be seen as a history of thought born from the imagination of a single painter, separate from the evolution of technology.

The core of this exhibition is seven small new oil paintings developed from the "Return Project," which has been in production since 2023. The Return Project was born from the idea of what would happen if Ogawa Shinji, before he became a painter (for example, when he was a high school student), painted a picture using the ideas and techniques he possesses today.

Now, after years of accumulated techniques and research, he has returned to his roots as a painter, and when confronted with a group of works that depict nature and what should be depicted, he is forced to think about the true meaning of art.

"These small oil paintings are devices for you to confront the world, and the figures are not merely background elements; they are the creators of the world, shining their gazes to support it." - From Ogawa Shinji's " Rondo of the Wind " -

Ogawa Shinji was born in Yamaguchi Prefecture in 1959.

Taking the theme of "What is the world?" as his theme, he creates ultra-detailed oil paintings, pencil drawings, and video works that depict the structure of time and space and its relationship to human consciousness.

His recent major exhibitions include "Shinji Ogawa: Better Half - Methods of Regression" Takamatsu City Museum of Art (Kagawa, 2023), "Shinji Ogawa - I Enter Every Reality" Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow (Poland, 2019-20), "Shinji Ogawa: Everything in the World Except You" Chiba City Museum of Art (Chiba, 2016), "Shinji Ogawa: Realizm perwersyjny" Bunkier Sztuki (Poland, 2008), "Shinji Ogawa: Interfering Worlds" National Museum of Art, Osaka (Osaka, 2006), "Labyrinth of Lines II - Melody of Pencil and Graphite" Meguro Art Museum (Tokyo, 2007), and "Shinji Ogawa: Souvenir/Souverain" Toyota Municipal Museum of Art (Aichi, 2002).