We would like to formally announce that Takuro Someya Contemporary Art has relocated to TERRADA Art Complex (Higashi-Shinagawa) to open our new exhibition room “TSCA.” On November 22, our grand opening coincides with Enrico Isamu Ōyama’s solo exhibition Black.

Takuro Someya Contemporary Art is pleased to announce the opening of the solo exhibition Black by the New York-based Japanese-Italian artist Enrico Isamu Ōyama.

By reinterpreting the visual language of aerosol writing, Enrico Isamu Ōyama has developed his signature motif dubbed “Quick Turn Structure” or “QTS.” Contrary to the colorful, pop expressions in conventional aerosol writing, Ōyama’s abstract monochrome motif may, upon first glance, give off an austere and tense impression. He states, “I personally can tell if a shape or a composition is successful, but I cannot do the same with a color. Also, colors take away a sense of motion from shapes.” From this statement, it can be conveyed that the abandonment of color—or its reduction to black and white—is purposely selected to emphasize this phenomenon of movement that shapes and compositions create.

 By selecting the use of muted colors and utilizing the lines produced by body gesture, Ōyama tries to compose the visual representation of the speed and the motion that was generated at the moment he creates them. In doing so, the viewers can re-organize those sensibilities in his or her own eyes and repeatedly sense their generation every single time when facing the QTS. This is one of the foundational concepts that run through the artist’s practice.

 Based on the above, this expression of “black and white” is not fully appropriate in describing this phenomenon either. In this phrase of “black and white” or the word “monochrome,” the very act of cutting out color is already called “non-saturated color.” The result of this is a black-white dichotomy—a world classified by color labels. Just as the zero is incorporated into a sequence without numbers, the concept of black and white also registers onto the color wheel as a colorless shade.

 The title of this exhibition—“Black”—not only escapes the binary framework of black and white, but also deviates from the standard color palette and encourages us to recognize the potential that black possesses on its own. Here, black and white are not in opposition to each other, but rather embody the relationship between the figure and the ground, or, in essence, the black form extending into a white space. Furthermore, “black” is synonymous with the fundamental expression of human desire and it recalls sensations such as creation, movement, speed, and extension. Ōyama has intentionally chosen this title to convey this myriad of meaning.

 Since receiving an invitation from the Asian Cultural Council in 2011, Ōyama has been residing and producing works at his Brooklyn studio in New York. His solo exhibitions and projects have been primarily showcased in the USA, Europe, and Asia. In 2017, the Japanese-Italian artist held his first museum exhibition titled Ubiquitous at Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art (Kansas State University). In addition, his solo exhibition Windowsill (Lumine 0 Shinjuku, Tokyo) attracted more than 1,200 visitors in its one-week duration.

 Ōyama has also served as the literary chief of the publication “Against Literacy: On Graffiti Culture” (LIXIL Publishing, 2015) and in the June 2017 edition of Bijutsu-Techo magazine, he edited a special feature on aerosol writing. In 2018, he was awarded a two-year grant by the Japanese Government’s Overseas Study Program for Artists and will continue working, writing, and honing his craft in New York for upcoming shows and publications in 2019 and 2020.

 From November 22 to December 22, 2018, Enrico Isamu Ōyama will be presenting a total of eight paintings—including three large-scale compositions and five new small to medium-sized works—in his latest exhibition entitled Black, which is his second exhibit with the gallery following Present Tense in 2016. While two of the large-scale works—FFIGURATI #162 and FFIGURATI #163—have previously been shown at his 2017 Ubiquitous exhibition, this upcoming exhibit will be the first time Ōyama has shown these selected works in Japan. We invite you to enjoy Ōyama’s form, movement, and monochrome works ever-present in his signature aesthetic of QTS.

Enrico Isamu Ōyama | Black

Exhibition period: Thursday, November 22 – Saturday, December 22, 2018

Opening reception: Thursday, November 22 from 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Open: Tue, Wed, Thu + Saturday 11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.｜Friday 11:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Closed: Sun, Mon, and National Holidays

TERRADA Art Complex 3F 1-3-10 Higashi-Shinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo, 140-0002

TEL 03-6804-3018｜FAX 03-4578-0318｜E-MAIL gallery@tsca.jp