Kenjiro Okazaki

Mettere a nudo / Aeon Muttered

October 14 - November 16, 2024

galerie frank elbaz, Paris

galerie frank elbaz is delighted to announce its second solo exhibition of works by Kenjiro Okazaki. Preceding his major retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo (MOT), opening in April 2025, this show will feature a new series of six large-scale paintings and several “Zero” paintings. 

Kenjiro Okazaki, Heads poking out, a shape with lion body and man's head. A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun. (...), 2024

Kenjiro Okazaki's artistic oeuvre often explores the fundamental principles of form and creation, transcending the boundaries of specific genres. He perceives diverse subjects—such as painting, sculpture, architecture, and literature—as interchangeable and translatable, while still preserving their unique characteristics.

This particular approach is evoked in the exhibition title, a perfect anagram conceived by the artist. "Mettere a nudo" meaning "to lay bare" or "to reveal the truth," in Italian, reflects the human desire to break the seals covering the world and know its ultimate limits. The noun "Aeon", etymologically meaning "life" or "vital force" in English, is often translated as "timeless" or "for eternity". In correspondence to the first part, yet in contrast, the expression implies the emergence of endless murmuring or chatter, suggesting a continuous flow of words or thoughts that persists eternally.