Shinji Ogawa’s black and white works are so meticulously rendered that they at first appear to be old photographs of architectural landscapes. And yet something seems off about them. Make no mistake – these are pencil drawings created by the artist, who clearly possesses a masterful drafting technique.
“However, those large pencil drawings are not pictures for the purpose of showing off his transcendent mastery with the pencil,” points out Maho Kubota, a gallery in Tokyo where Ogawa will be showcasing a series of new works next month. In each of his drawings, Ogawa has altered the landscape to create an alternate universe that is at once nostalgic but also surreal. Repetition and mirror images are two modes that appear often in Ogawa’s drawings.
Again, here’s Maho Kubota Gallery:
In the Rondo series, Ogawa creates startling worlds through repetition of the same image. Much like how the moon follows you wherever you go in the world. Regardless of where you go, a repeatedly appearing scene bedazzles us, as if a door to a multiverse were opened. It resembles the way that a classical musical composition still seems to develop in a truly elegant way, even if the bug-like presence of a scratch on an analog record makes the music return to the same place, playing the same phrase over and over.
Ogawa’s works will be on view at Maho Kubota Gallery from October 13 – November 15, 2017.
September 29, 2017 at 4:53 pm
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