Natsuko Sakamoto: Tiles | Signals — unexpected dimensions
This will be Sakamoto's first solo exhibition in four years, and will feature about 100 new works, ranging from large oil paintings to smaller works, as well as drawings and sculptures.
Consistent with her creative activities is a strong awareness of the methodology of painting. Tiles, which have been painted continuously since her early days, are an important motif essential to Sakamoto. In addition, a new motif called "signal" appeared in the works she presented from 2019, which triggered a major change in her paintings and methodology. The female figure, which had been an integral part of Sakamoto's work, disappeared, and her paintings became more abstract, foreshadowing the next stage of her development.
And this time, Sakamoto is further advancing and diversifying her methodological experiments to depict a "world that does not yet exist. In the various large paintings presented in this exhibition, "tiles" and "signals" are crossed, allowing for the development of a surprisingly broad body of work never before seen. Along with the highly experimental sculptures and small works that were created while working on the large paintings, the exhibition will be a "world that does not yet exist". Please come and see the latest works of Sakamoto, who never ceases her challenging experiments in production.
"17 years of arranging oil painted tiles on canvas have passed before I knew it, yet painting for me remains an unnatural and inconvenient act. My comfort and the freedom of a painting have nothing to do with each other. Yet only the act of painting allows me to think about this unretraceable reality. To live, therefore, is also to paint in search of freedom. For me to do so, I continuously require new methodologies.
In your (future) land, is painting still a way of getting in touch with a world that doesn’t yet exist? Lately I’ve been thinking about what a dimension of a painting capable of attracting many shadows of you could possibly be. You unpredictably change from moment to moment—but if cause and effect exist between the past and present, any number of your shadows must be encapsulated in our time. I believe that extracting them as some color and form will prove a clue to measuring the ungraspable position of the “now.”
And I want to transmit, somewhere, these signals who appear as shadows of the future."
May 2023
Sakamoto Natsuko
A booklet produced for this exhibition will also be on sale at the gallery from July 1st. It includes an email correspondence with Mr. Atsushi Shinfuji, and is a must-read for understanding the deepening of Sakamoto's methodology in painting.