Year: 2022
Medium: acrylic, spray paint on UV printed and burnt aluminum panel
Dimensions: 244 x 122 cm (96 x 48 in.)
Acquired from +81 Gallery, 2022
This work features a new form of artistic expression by deviating from Yamaguchi’s vibrantly intense brushstrokes presented in his previous works. This work continued a path of liberation from the constraints of square-shaped canvas and vertical paintings, reminiscing Frank Stella’s “shaped canvas” or perhaps “flatbed” as described by Robert Rauschenberg. However, in this work, Yamaguchi obviously revisits the rectangular format with the use of an aluminum panel, so to speak, returning to “the frame”. If “Out of Bounds” series are paintings devoid of support (strictly speaking support still exists), the “SHADEZ OF BLUE” series breaks away from the concept of support and frame and attempts to challenge in an exact opposite direction where support or frame is mandatory and expressed by “all over” composition. Each area of the composition is given equal significance. With its UV print as the base, it is fixed onto the hard surface of aluminum and is ferociously superimposed with three dimensional pigments. Moreover, perhaps due to the heat of the burner, the aluminum frame which serves as the support is extremely deformed and warped. Pigments with metallic luster such as silver on the key parts enhances the fluctuation and has developed a sense of wobbling unsteadiness to a greater extent towards the distorted painting.
