installation views: ©Yusuke Asai, Courtesy of ARATANIURANO Photo by Ichiro Mishima | click to enlarge
For the painter Yusuke Asai, the act of painting is one of unconstrained creativity. Give him masking tape and markers and he’ll create a sprawling mural. Give him mud and he’ll cover a classroom in hues of reds, browns and oranges. It is the specific location, and the constraints that it poses, the lends power to Asai’s art. After traveling the world and, most recently, staging his first solo show in the U.S., Asai has returned to Japan for “Creating Here,” a three-dimensional installation of organic, web-like branches that deviate from his typically two-dimensional murals.
installation view: ©Yusuke Asai, Courtesy of ARATANIURANO Photo by Ichiro Mishima
Coloring directly onto masking tape and paper and then stretching them from floor to ceiling, Asai creates a web of organisms and botanical motifs that almost resemble an invasive species slowly encompassing the white walls of the gallery.
In addition to the large-scale installation, Asai also has several new paintings and drawings on display. “Creating Here” is up through December 27 at Arataniurano gallery in Shirokanedai, Tokyo.
installation view: ©Yusuke Asai, Courtesy of ARATANIURANO Photo by Ichiro Mishima
installation view: ©Yusuke Asai, Courtesy of ARATANIURANO Photo by Ichiro Mishima
Yusuke Asai. Drawing (2014). h.162.0 × w.229.0 cm Pen on masking tape
Yusuke Asai “Private Speech 15” (left) and “Private Speech 16” (right). Colored pencil, dermatograph, ink, marker on paper (2014)
Yusuke Asai Drawing (2014) h.30.3 × w.41.3 cm Pen on masking tape
