KEI IMAZU
Kei Imazu was born in 1980, Yamaguchi Prefecture. She graduated with an M.F.A. from Tama Art University. Imazu was awarded the VOCA 2009 Prize for Excellence, and the 2013 Kinutani Koji Award, Encouragement Award. In 2017, her large works measuring over 4 meters in scale were added to the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art (USA). In 2019, Imazu took part in “Roppongi Crossing 2019: Connexions (Mori Art Museum, Tokyo) and “Aichi Triennale 2019: Taming Y/Our Passion.” She was selected as a Finalist for Prix Jean-François Prat (France) in 2020 and was invited to exhibit in “dOCUMENTA 15” (Kassel, Germany) in 2022. Imazu continues to receive high international acclaim, and currently lives and works in Bandung, Indonesia. Imazu's works are produced through the process of creating preliminary collages by editing various images from the Internet using Photoshop©︎, which she then transcribes into oil paintings on canvas. She draws on a diverse range of sources for the imagery within her artwork: from historical masterpieces, illustrated museum catalogues, advertisements, and even private photographs found on social media, creating meticulously orchestrated multi-layered compositions through various interventions such as applying brushstrokes with editing software. In recent years, she has expanded the scope of her interests and concerns, engaging with global issues such as climate change and the global south.
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Title: Asyura
Year: 2022
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 100 x 80 cm -
Title: Orange Desert on Blue Sheet
Year: 2009
Medium: acrylic on canvas
Dimensions: 116.8 x 91 cm (46 x 35 7/8 in.) -
Title: Moment
Year: 2008
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 162 x 194 cm (63 3/4 x 76 3/8 in.) -
Title: Blue Ribbon
Year: 2008
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 162 x 131 cm (63 3/4 x 51 5/8 in.) -
Title: Drowsiness
Year: 2022
Medium: oil on linen
Dimensions: 194 x 162 cm (76 5/8 x 63 3/4 in.)
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Asyura
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Year: 2022The oil painting on canvas is based on a preliminary collage created by through her characteristic technique of assembling and editing digital images in multiple layers. The image of the Asyura is transformed into something chaotic, disturbing and unsettling through the intermixture of brushstrokes and other various imagery. Such means of depiction also appears to emphasize Asyura’s origins as the god of war, as well as its surreal and irregular stature. In itself an exemplification of Imazu’s strengths as an artist, the complex yet perspicuous painting serves to reflect the vast sea of information on the internet and the overabundance of imagery that surrounds us, and the vague and uncertain nature of our current times.
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 100 x 80 cm
Acquired from Anomaly, 2022
Past Exhibitions
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- 2022 Art Collaboration Kyoto
https://a-c-k.jp/
- 2022 Art Collaboration Kyoto
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Orange Desert on Blue Sheet
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Year: 2009At the time this work was painted, Imazu was intuitively gathering various images online, from magazines and other sources, composing them as rough sketches on the computer while working. The intuitively selected images have no contextual relationship to each other. If unrelated objects were simply drawn together, a story might therefore emerge as a painting. Like a child overturning a toy box, Imazu must have looked at the piles of randomly collected images, imagined their meanings which should not have been attached, and fantasized about a story that connects those meanings she created. At the end of an orange-burned desert, there is a palm tree. The blue color surrounded by rich flowers and grasses like an oasis is a blue sheet. A high-pressure washer, a cow, and various containers are scattered around. The three standing girls are dressed in completely different styles, and they do not even look at each other. With everything scattered while awkwardly gathered, the world somehow manages to maintain its form. This absurd but harmless humor makes one break into a smile.
Medium: acrylic on canvas
Dimensions: 116.8 x 91 cm (46 x 35 7/8 in.)
Acquired from SBI Art Auction, 2022
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Moment
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Year: 2008Imazu’s works in the 2000s were created by the process of combining images found in magazines and websites to compose rough sketches on a computer. She then created oil paintings from those sketches. In her recent works, she often focuses on selecting representations from a certain range of famous paintings such as art history, myths, and religious motifs. In this work, there appears to be no direct relationship between the urban landscape and the boy depicted. However, the boy in the center is bathed in bright light and his hair is wet with water. It creates an imagery chain that makes the urban landscape in the background resemble an underwater city. The light is gently refracted by the shimmering of the water. Through the distortion of the light, the colors change into rainbow colors as if interference occurred and turned into a beautiful scene The term “moment” in the title not only refers to a moment in time but also refers to the force that rotates an axis in physics, and the buildings in this painting are indicating a twist. Imazu’s paintings consistently evoke a flexible imagination by interlinking images. In this process, the image of the individual object is softly unraveled within the painting. The moment of force shown in the depiction of the “buildings” in this work clearly conveys the artist’s distinctive touch.
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 162 x 194 cm (63 3/4 x 76 3/8 in.)
Acquired from SBI Art Auction, 2022
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Blue Ribbon
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Year: 2008The ground of the painting is richly filled with bright colors reminiscent of a flower garden. Colors that appear to be gradually blotting out in the distance soon become specific in their outlines in the near view. They turn into a slightly radial spread of fireworks and shooting stars that seem to be lingering. Amidst the torrent of dazzlingly bright colors, something resembling an abandoned house is depicted, seeming out of place. The architecture is heavily distorted as if it is about to collapse at any moment. With almost nothing left to cover the front and the roof, the indoor space which is supposed not to be exposed to the sun is now glowing golden with light. In contrast with the chaotic interior, it seems to be a monument of something precious. Using it as the background, a boy is standing upright wearing a large blue ribbon tie. From his facial expression, it is difficult to determine whether his eyes are squinting with dazzle and happiness or if his cheeks are tense with sadness and pain. Due to the lack of clear elements characterizing the boy’s expression or the blue ribbon, he seems to be the only one who is floating in this world detaching from all relationships. This painting stirs up the ambivalent feelings of both bright and dark emotions.
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 162 x 131 cm (63 3/4 x 51 5/8 in.)
Acquired from NEW AUCTION, 2022
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Drowsiness
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Year: 2022This painting, titled “Drowsiness,” is composed of a hazy enmeshment of various motifs, characteristic of Imazu’s work. These motifs seem to suggest something through their sequential nature. While the elements—such as the large flower petals, sea creature, tree, skull, fish, Eastern-style mermaid, female figure, and large arm—seem interconnected, there is also a sense of incoherence akin to the disorder felt in a dream. Imazu frequently explores mythology as the subject of his work. Assuming the large painted flower is an anemone, in Greek mythology, it symbolizes death or tragic love. Needless to say, the skull can be interpreted as a symbol of death in the painting. While Hypnos is the god of sleep, he is born from Nyx (Night) and shares this divine parentage with Thanatos and Moros, gods associated with death. Thus, sleep is tied to the realm of death. In Dante’s “Divine Comedy,” famously illustrated by William Blake, Dante, who falls into a deep sleep, is guided by the angel Lucia while in a dream-like state. When viewing this work through the expression “falling asleep,” one can observe a slumber-like serenity, much like drifting in tranquil waters that intertwined with the horror of descending into the dark and deep underworld.
Medium: oil on linen
Dimensions: 194 x 162 cm (76 5/8 x 63 3/4 in.)
Acquired from ANOMALY, 2022