Watabiki Akihiro Exhibition
From the Forest of Istria
Dates: June 4 (Sat) - 26 (Sun), 2011
Venue／Artorand Gallery
10:00am-6:30pm
Tuesdays (open by appointment), closed Wednesdays
Exhibiting / 50-60 clear graph works, mainly new works
Press Release
ARTLAND GALLERY is pleased to announce an exhibition of Watabiki Akihiro, known for his clear graphs, an original technique inspired by animation celluloid pictures. This is Watabiki's second solo exhibition, following his first in 2009.
Born in Ibaraki Prefecture in 1960, Watabiki graduated from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in 1984, and began showing his work as a graduate student at the same university.
Watabiki's clear graph is a technique of painting on a transparent acrylic board using color gesso, a colored conditioner used as a base for canvases and other materials. Inspired by animation, in which celluloid pictures depicting backgrounds and characters are layered on top of each other, Watabiki replaces the celluloid with acrylic to create a three-dimensional picture by overlapping two or more sheets. For him, who began his career as an artist with copperplate prints, this is also a method of laying down the printmaking technique of layering multiple plates in a three-dimensional manner, and it can be said that he maintains consistency in his work.
The world of Watabiki's images is a bright and joyful world in which a "cast of an imaginary stage" (see the artist's text) plays an active role in accordance with the transparency and three-dimensionality created by the clear graph technique. Please enjoy Watabiki's world, which creates a mirror-like "expanse" at the back of the screen and gives the illusion that the "act of seeing" is directly connected to the "experience" of the work.
Watabiki Akihiro
While in graduate school, Watabiki won the Grand Prize at the Seibu Museum of Art Printmaking Grand Prize Exhibition, and began his career as an artist focusing on copperplate prints. In 1990, Watabiki began to produce works using clearagraph, an original painting technique in which he paints from the reverse side of a transparent acrylic plate.
From 2002, he stayed in Spain for about a year as an overseas art trainee of the Agency for Cultural Affairs. He has held numerous solo and group exhibitions at galleries throughout Japan. In 2013, he was invited to participate in the Niijima International Glass Art Festival, where he produced glass works, and he continues to develop his expression through various media that transcend genres.
Workshop "Let's make a clear graph series.2"
A different workshop from the previous one, using two acrylic sheets of the size of a Japanese postcard, using Watabiki's original technique! This workshop will be fun even for first-timers, so please feel free to join us. You are sure to take home a fun piece of artwork!
Date & Time: Sunday, May 17, from 2:00 p.m.
Instructor: Akihiro Watahiki
Fee: 2,000 yen (including materials)
Imaginary Stage Cast Watahiki Akihiro
When I create a work of art, one thing that is indispensable is a scrapbook in which I keep my childhood doodles and fragments of memories. This large A3-size scrapbook now has 25 volumes.
It contains decades of my ideas. And in the actual productions, many of the mysterious characters that came out of this book appear. I call them my cast, and I cast them like actors on a stage, scene by scene. They are all very smooth and can become any character, depending on who is watching them. The inhabitants of this imaginary stage will continue to act out their roles with great freedom.
Japan is currently suffering from an unprecedented earthquake and tsunami. I believe in the mysterious power of art. The works of art can be close to the viewers' hearts, heal them, and stir their imagination. I would like to continue to experiment with this power in the future as I have in the past.
