Kazuki Takamatsu “Japanese Ideology of Puberty”

Corey Helford Gallery presents Kazuki Takamatsu “Japanese Ideology of Puberty” Opening Reception Saturday, April 13, 2013 from 7-10pm On View April 13 – May 11, 2013 Culver City (April 4, 2013) — On Saturday, April 13, 2013, Corey Helford Gallery presents the “Japanese Ideology of Puberty,” featuring the light and shadow paintings of Japanese artist Kazuki Takamatsu, his first solo show with the gallery. Takamatsu’s paintings of contemporary awakenings are a catharsis of tonalities. “I use computer graphics- digital-and painting-analog-to make a work and it indicates the emotion of boys and girls metaphorically,” says Takamatsu of his painting method. Through the computer graphic technique of depth mapping, three- dimensional space is digitally visualized in a series of multiple depth plains. Takamatsu hand paints the emotions of his teenage subjects modeled on deep computer visual space. “Each graduation from surface to depth means the distance and there is no light and shadow. The color of black and white are metaphor for truth and evil, race and religion.” With acrylic black and white paints and gouaches, Takamatsu renders his girls with a method mediated on social fields of sexual identity, depth-fields mapping emotions engaging with a “systematic society.” In the featured painting, “What is Important to Me Now?,” Takamatsu reveals a girl’s contemplation as a defense of being overwhelmed: “Weapons to protect something or to get rid of something. Information, life, politics, culture, religion, friends, nature, animal, plant or mind?” Youth becomes a field of awakenings, multiple perceptions of an adulterated world. “A pure emotion of Teenager who can’t get used to the society of adult has a mirror of inconsistency of society. I think there is a beauty in it,” he says. Takamatsu celebrates the adolescent’s vision as a purity blossoming through technology media, a venus fly-trap of tech culture and viral thinking. -more- “Japanese Ideology of Puberty” will exhibit twelve oil paintings painted in acrylic and gouache, focusing on the emotive depth of coming of age. Of his painting, “The Flu” depicting a virus complicating life and trans- mitted by people, he visualizes metamorphosis. “The information, society and people always keep changing,” says Takamatsu of his ephemeral figures’ world, a vibrant, noir mapping of the rites of youth, where growing- up is a surreal awakening, a beauty transcending technocracy. The opening reception for “Japanese Ideology of Puberty” takes place Saturday, April 13 at Corey Helford Gallery. The reception is open to the public, and the exhibition will be on view through May 11, 2013. Kazuki Takamatsu Kazuki Takamatsu was born in Sendai, Miyagi in 1978. Influenced by media and subculture growing up, he attended the Department of Oil Painting at Tohoku University of Art & Design and graduated in 2001. Taka- matsu’s haunting black and white imagery explores narratives of death and society, through a unique depth- mapping technique that he developed, in which classic mediums such as drawing, airbrush and gouache painting are combined with computer graphics. For more information about the artist, please visit kazukitaka- matsu.web.fc2.com. Corey Helford Gallery Located in the Culver City Art District, Corey Helford Gallery was established in 2006 by Jan Corey Hel- ford and her husband, television producer and creator, Bruce Helford (Anger Management, The Drew Carey Show, George Lopez, The Oblongs). Corey Helford Gallery represents a diverse collection of Contemporary artists influenced by today’s pop culture, encompassing the genres of New Figurative, Pop Surreal, Graffiti and Street Art. Artists include Josh Agle (Shag), Ray Caesar, D*Face, Chloe Early, EINE, Ron English, Natalia Fabia, HUSH, Kukula, Lola, The London Police, Sylvia Ji, Eric Joyner, Michael Mararian, Brandi Milne, Buff Monster, Risk, Amy Sol, TrustoCorp, Martin Wittfooth, and Nick Walker. Renowned for its notable exhibitions, the gallery has presented “Charity By Numbers,” which was co-curated by Gary Baseman and featured an unprecedented lineup of artists including Mark Ryden, Marion Peck, Shepard Fairey, Todd and Kathy Schorr, Camille Rose Garcia, and Michael Hussar, as well as “La Noche de la Fusion,” an epic Carnivalesque festival and solo exhibition for Pervasive artist Gary Baseman. In 2010, Corey Helford Gallery partnered with Bristol’s City Museum & Art Gallery for the transatlantic collaboration “Art From The New World,” a world-class United Kingdom museum exhibition showcasing work by a formidable group of 49 of the finest emerging and noted American artists. Corey Helford Gallery presents new exhibitions approximately every four weeks. For more information and an upcoming exhibition schedule, please visit coreyhelfordgallery.com. Corey Helford Gallery Press and Media Inquiries 8522 Washington Boulevard Angelique Groh | Charm School Culver City, CA 90232 [email protected] T: 310-287-2340 T: 323-363-9338 www.coreyhelfordgallery.com Open Tuesday - Saturday, Noon to 6:00pm ###.

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