Exhibition Catalogue
“Resonance and Reflection” by Hideo Ohtsuki GALLERY
SNEHTA
NODNOL EXHIBITIONS
Introduction Hideo Ohtsuki was born in Japan and grew up in the USA. Spending most of of his childhood in the US hanging out with people from many different backgrounds. This childhood experience with people influenced in Hideo in ways, such as taking fragments and depicting them into his works. His exhibition “PROLOGUE” held in Slovenia on Dec, 2014 is an example of this; pieces exhibited were combination of drawing and patterns that a foreign connotations could be felt. In Nov, 2018 he entered an competition held by Higashiyama ward of Kyoto. Hideo was awarded an Chairman award in this competition. Concept of Hideo's works involve the act of creating and expression as faces of coin focusing on bipolarity of things and reconstructing them in monotone aiming to reunite them in a new perspective and balance. In his works, there are open space and detailed space which reflects on essences of things you can see, hear, touch and things you feel and cannot see. However the world is not simple of two pole because in reality there are not edge of a spectrum but like very abstract definitions which is rather gradations of phenomenon. On Mar 2019, collections that were on exhibited in Osaka depicted these aspects and the works centered around an actor playing its role, having emotions and ones state that cannot be simply separated; limiting colors to monotone but sometimes using one color to imprint the changing phenomenon of things you cannot separate from each other on canvas. Through creating art Hideo wants to embody what he thinks and let those visions travel within the viewer.
Memoirs Inscribed In Gingko
113 X 92 MIXED MEDIA
Mind Game
150 X 180 MIXED MEDIA
Toque
803 X 1000 MIXED MEDIA
Travail
141 X 106 MIXED MEDIA
Lime Light
117 X 83 MIXED MEDIA
Artist Interview Is there any advice you would give to your younger self?
When I started I was so particular about drawing/painting technically and was actually encouraged to do what I wanted to do. Now, if I were to tell my younger self not to be so focused and bogged up about such things and just produce what I want to do no matter how bad it is; Its worth doing then not doing. People will say things to you no matter what, and even if I did draw photographycally, I would of still got heartless comments anyways. Each time I produce I get better and dont aim for the perfect picture from the beginning.
What is your favorite part of this job?
One of my favorite parts of being an artist is meeting incredible people from completely different backgrounds. It’s amazing how many talented artists you get to collaborate with and forge relationships with. And through meeting these people, you discover new projects you want to work on and think of ideas you hadn’t previously thought about. You also learn and are influenced from the people you surround yourself with and its absolutely amazing what can come about from your relationships with other artists.
How do you choose your themes? Is there a theme you return to regularly?
My most important artist tool is definitely my camera. My favorite camera has to be my Mamiya RZ67. It was one of the first cameras I started using and now I use it for most of my photographic projects. I just love medium format and don’t think I will ever stop using it. The resolution of it is incredible and the lenses are equally as good. One thing I can’t live without in my studio probably is my polaroid sx-70 camera. Initially, I used it for testing shots but now I’ve incorporated it more into my practice and I absolutely love the physicality of the camera and the immediacy of it.
How have you developed in your career over the past 5 years and where do you see yourself 5 years from now?
The past five years of my career is achieving goals I have set myself, and now I have more experience than I started out and I may be known by small number of people, but succeed to be invited to join several shows, were able to exhibit overseas, and motivated to continue doing what I do thanks to people who drop by my show or look at what I post on social media. Five years from now I am definately going to exhibit and publish my works outside of Japan when this Corona pandemic cools down.
How do you define success in an artist’s career?
Success can be defined by how much popularity you gained over the past few year of the career or the income. At this point of life, I define my success of my artist career by how much I am known by people and how much my work is known.
Give us some behind-the-scenes from the creating process / What is the last thing you do before starting working / What is the first thing you do when your work is done?
Usually I paint 5-6 paintings simultaneously. Since each painting refer to each other and is a fraction of one block of the story, this process is easier for me to control; Creating at the same level, using the same color, and the time to paint each one is saved by doing it at the same time thus giving me more time to observe the work. The last thing I do when I feel that the work is finished is give it couple of days and looks back again asking myself if it is truely finished or not.
What are the next steps in your career?
My next step in career is two things: to be known as who I am, my works, links to the artist to work, to certain people who are interested in art. I would like to hold more exhibitions over seas and be able to do more outside of my home country.
Is there something people need to know about you or the way you think so they can understand your artwork?
I get this alot when exhibiting in Japan, when looking at my work please do not look at it if «it is drawn/painted correctly» or «whether or not the perspective is inline» because i am not trying to paint/draw hyper realistically and that is not important. Rather observe, breakdown your thoughts and compare with the theme or story of the work. For the works done in monotone, it is done on purpose so please accept it as it is and not be like «you should paint in color» because I do paint in color. Each work is done in those style I chose for an reason. Not focing on those techinical aspect, I believe it is much more simpler to understand my works.
What is your opinion on censorship in art? Do you think there are any sensitive topics that an artist should not work around?
If a certain work is censored for political reasons by the system, I would say it is nonsence. The history of Man kind is built on both positive and negative pasts and we cannot handle things like it didnt happen. The same for being politically censored work, there are other sides of the story that people get out there and it should not be censored because it is inconvinient. However, if certain things is not fact base and is a false rumor we are responsible of what affect it gives to society for a picture is worth a thousand words. Art has been cencored or banned throughout history when a certain regime tries to build its power for example. But our society is not an authortarian society and there are no need to do so unless it goes against the law or shuns certain minorities.
How do you deal with social media? How has social media affected promoting your art?
I think that social media is more convinient method to showcase what Im doing. Thru SNS I was able to promote several shows and get comments from people from different countries that I would of not met about my works, found exhibitors like Art Number 23, and got scouted by an art promoting group. However, not everything is not ups, the downs are I am exposed and I get messages from scammers daily. It is hard to differenciate who is real and who is a scam.
Santiago
64 X 46 MIXED MEDIA
Iku
60 X 74 MIXED MEDIA
Pear Breath and Mandala
157 X 110 MIXED MEDIA
Breath of Moon
67 X 95 MIXED MEDIA
Trances of a Ghost, No.10
130 X 160 MIXED MEDIA
Amicae
96 X 134 MIXED MEDIA
Shine of Spline Patterns
57 X 73 MIXED MEDIA
Fertility of Trees
58 X 80 MIXED MEDIA
Moon Playing a Trumpet
115 X 93 MIXED MEDIA
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“RESONANCE AND REFLECTION” by Hideo Ohtsuki