Everything is or could be artistic

ADF(NPO Aoyama Design Forum) will present The World is my Canvas by artist Den at GARDE Galley in Minami Aoyama from 17 (Fri) to 25 (Sat) June 2022 as the 14th edition of the ADF Art Gallery Project, an art exhibition. Admission is free, so feel free to drop by if you are in the area.

The first time I saw a painting by the French painter Henri Matisse (1869 – 1954) I was moved by the intense colorism and the flattened forms he used to animate the canvas. Over the years, many artists have influenced my work but, as I present here by first solo art exhibition after having taken part in showings at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum and the National Art Center Tokyo, I realize the lingering impact of Matisse and the French school has shaped how I view and consider art. In this exhibition, "the World is my Canvas", I would like to invite to share two of the concepts that, I believe, are part of my approach to painting.

The first one is the essence of color as a living and vibrant element that can be found everywhere in our daily life. It is my opinion that color shapes reality and can be absorbed the spectator. I have tried to incorporate that perception into the paintings displayed here today. The second concept is the principle of juxtaposition. The contrast (and sometimes contradiction) between basic ideas like human/nature, animated/inert, mundane/divine is something that fascinates me. I think presenting disparate things side by side helps reveal their nature. Art goes beyond what we can see in museums or galleries. Everything is or can be, artistic. The world is a giant canvas for us to fill with the colors and forms we carry inside. Please join me as we try to do just that.