Tsuyoshi Maekawa: Selected works 1958—2018 at Axel Vervoordt Gallery

Peaceful, elegant and rich-in-texture artworks, also a very educational exhibition because the evolution of style is so visible. Tsuyoshi Maekawa was part of the second generation of Gutai artists, and I would absolutely love to have a chance to quote part of the Gutai Art Manifesto:

Let’s bid farewell to the hoaxes piled up on the altars and in the palaces, the drawing rooms and the antique shops.
They are monsters made of the matter called paint, of cloth, metals, earth, and marble, which through a meaningless act of signification by humans, through the magic of material, were made to fraudulently assume appearances other than their own. These types of matter [busshitsu], all slaughtered under the pretense of production by the mind, can now say nothing.
Lock up these corpses in the graveyard.

Gutai Art does not alter matter. Gutai Art imparts life to matter. Gutai Art does not distort matter.
In Gutai Art, the human spirit and matter shake hands with each other while keeping their distance. Matter never compromises itself with the spirit; the spirit never dominates matter. When matter remains intact and exposes its characteristics, it starts telling a story and even cries out. To make the fullest use of matter is to make use of the spirit. By enhancing the spirit, matter is brought to the height of the spirit.

That’s why the material matters so much in Gutai art, that’s why the movement was so radical.
What the viewer sees is a dialog between artist and material, an exploration of variants and development of existence. Maybe that’s why sometimes it feels like the chosen material or medium is collaborating eagerly with the artist, playing along and helping to find new possibilities to be shown.

When: 21 May—24 September
Where: 21/F, Coda Designer Centre 62, Wong Chuk Hang