Barbara Seiler

Barbara Seiler, Zurich is very pleased to present the second solo exhibition of Japanese artist Tenki Hiramatsu.

‘Should I wait for everyone to wake up or should I wake up first’ describes the state of mind of Japanese artist Tenki Hiramatsu (*1986, Wakayama JP) while painting in his studio. Adding layer after layer of oil paint, on wooden panel and sometimes on paper, he is continuously changing between focus and locus. Each layer of paint can result in a new situation and create new opportunities how the painting develops. To add to the process, he shifts the painting by 90° and continues from there, adds another layer, might shift it again in a continuative process, which can take weeks and months to complete. It’s this matrix approach that could best be described by 皆が起 きるのを待つべきか、私が先に目覚めるべきか。

Tenki Hiramatsu’s new series of paintings combine figuration with more and more elements that are purely abstract. Sometimes we can detect the remains of what could have been a lonely figure behind an intensive stroke of white or watery blue. The characters we see are often in groups of two or three and seem to be in some kind of communication, the nature of which remains unknow to the viewer. In regards to his work Hiramatsu is thinking about communication. He argues that when two people communicate with each other, they both assume a certain universal understanding for what the other one is saying. We often focus on the topic of the conversation instead of the interaction itself. However, most conversations we have in our daily life are not of any significance, and their content disappears into thin air within seconds after being spoken. Hiramatsu’s characters, creatures and animals are often seen in nonverbal communication with eyes wide open expressing fear, joy or surprise. Moods are translated in colors, dark hues of olive green and earth brown expressing mystery and fear, warm pink and yellow hues expressing joy and fun, while blue shades hint to melancholy and somnambul.

Painting figures and creatures gives me a strange feeling, Hiramatsu once said. “Sometimes I feel an immediate sympathy for them, but sometimes I do not. It could be that there is an ideal form them. But there is no correct form how these figures should be. A line can exist as creature. And a line can exist without any purpose. So basically, any form could be for nothing.” Hiramatsu likes that. An existence without purpose. It sounds a bit sad. “I think it is similar to our existence.”

Tenki Hiramatsu was born in 1986 in Wakayama, Japan, and studied painting at the Nihon University College of Arts in Tokyo. In 2016 he began his studies at the Staatliche Kunstakademie Karlsruhe with Professor Daniel Roth and later with Prof. Marcel van Eeden. Recent and upcoming solo exhibitions include Castle, Los Angels US; Sukima Gallery, Tokyo JP; Claas Reiss, London UK; Robert Grunenberg, Berlin DE; Kunstverein Rastatt, Rastatt DE. His work has been shown at Hive Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing CN; Giulietta, Basel CH; AN+ Art and Design Center, Shenzhen CN; James Fuentes, New York US; Tong Art, East Hampton US; and Kunsthalle Basel, CH among others. He currently lives and works in Karlsruhe, DE.