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Kenjiro Okazaki, 栩栩然／胡蝶の領解／Recognition of the butterfly’s territory, 2020
Acrylic on canvas
25,2 x 18 x 3 cm (9 7/8 x 7 1/8 x 1 1/8 in.)
photo: Claire Dorn

TOPICA PICTUS is a suite of abstract paintings, each paired with a short essay and reference image(s), which function as key components to provide multi-layered experiences to audiences.
In the process of making these paintings, Okazaki finds that the multitude of issues that historically face painting is akin to the discovery of a place. Namely, each painting confronts a unique issue and allows for a unique topos (place) to emerge. The term topica in TOPICA PICTUS is derived from Aristotle’s Ars Topica (The Topics) on the art of the dialectic, and is associated with topos, which indicates a place. In the course of his work, Okazaki recalled not only art historical objects such as African masks, decorative and colored manuscripts, Kamakura-era picture scrolls, Momoyama-era Japanese paintings, Renaissance, Impressionist, and Modernist art, but also medieval maps, images of Dumbo, Pearl Harbor, and Google Earth.

Kenjiro Okazaki, No keystone, No eulogia and No regular hours / 訪問(hōmon) / without asking for a sign, she believed it
No one else could ever be admitted here / 法⾨(hōmon) / since this gate was made only for you, 2021
Acrylic on canvas
left: 25,2 x 18,2 x 3 cm (9 7/8 x 7 1/8 x 1 1/8 in.)
right: 25,2 x 18,3 x 3 cm (9 7/8 x 7 1/4 x 1 1/8 in.)
Photo: Claire Dorn

Taro Shinoda, The Sun and Mount Fuji and Steve Reich #3, 2016
Ink on paper with plywood frame
104 x 104 x 30 cm (41 x 41 x 11 3/4 in.)
Photo: Claire Dorn

This series of blueprint works depicts the movement of the sun on photosensitive paper, on top of which the artist places sand and rocks, exposing them to sunlight and sound vibrations.

Taro Shinoda, Katsura 11, 2020
Oil on canvas
120 x 95 cm (47 1/4 x 37 3/8 in.)
Photo: Claire Dorn

Taro Shinoda’s Katsura works employ basic oil painting materials, sizing linen canvas with rabbit skin glue and using walnut oil as a painting medium. Nevertheless, they are distinctly unlike the conventional paintings that we are familiar with. Standing in front of one of these works, viewers feel unsure about what distance and what angle to view the painting from. Extending inwards from the edges of each work is a large margin of linen canvas, which curves away from the viewer as it approaches the center, creating a depression with a depth of about 5 centimeters. In the center is a flat area covered by an abstract composition of colors and grid lines, painted with oil paints. The series was inspired by Katsura Palace in Kyoto, Japan.

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