Tadaaki Kuwayama & Rakuko Naito: An Ode to Nothing

An Ode to Nothing is a duo exhibition by the esteemed Japanese artist Tadaaki Kuwayama and his wife artist Rakuko Naito, which features a selection of exquisite works from the 1960s to the present day, the exhibition opens a visual dialogue between Kuwayama's series of art forms and Naito’s exploration of neutral materials.

Both artists delve into the nature of nothingness and deliberately reduce space, composition, narrative, and personality in their artistic creations. Kuwayama's goal was to pursue what the artist calls "pure art," which epitomizes the absence of ideas, thoughts, philosophies, reasons, meanings, or even humanity in his works. Despite the different trajectories of the two artists, there remain thematic similarities between them - a rejection of aesthetic conventions in favor of a sense of nothingness.

The exhibition features a diptych featuring a canvas of brightly colored paint bisected by an aluminum strip. From a distance, the surfaces of these works appear incomprehensible until one gets closer and notices the sheen of the gallery light reflecting off the lustrous surfaces achieved by combining acrylic paint with Japanese mineral pigments.

Tadaaki Kuwayama & Rakuko Naito - << An Ode to Nothing >>
Date: 27 Jan – 16 Mar 2024
Gallery: Whitestone Gallery Official
Address: 7-8/F, H Queen’s, 80 Queen’s Road Central, Hong Kong
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