Makoto Murata "Spacing Out"

SNOW Contemporary is pleased to present Makoto Murata's solo exhibition " “Spacing Out” from Friday, July 20 through Saturday, August 11, 2018.

Makoto Murata has worked actively as an art journalist after serving for PIA as an editor and published many books such as Bijutsuka ni naruniwa (How to Become an Artist) (2002, Naruniwa BOOKS) , Closer Perspectives on Art (2010, BankART), and . Having been served as a principal at BankART School along with writing art reviews on the Asahi Shimbun and the Hokkaido Shimbun Press, he has made significant contributions to the art world in Japan over years. While known as a journalist in art, Murata restarted making his own works as an artist 13 years ago, creating works with his unique perspective as an art journalist.
In this solo exhibition at SNOW Contemporary, Murata presents a series of works depicting only the upper half of the historical masterpieces such as Vermeer’s “View of Delft” and Delacroix’s “Battle of Poitiers“. Murata has been released humorous works quoting the history of paintings such as Vermeer's "painting in painting", Yuichi Takahashi’s "Tofu Painting" which depicts canvas itself as tofu, baked tofu and fried tofu and " 'Petit War Paintings' Series" which shrunk and copied all 153 war paintings in The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo to 1/20. For this exhibition, Murata focuses on the upper half of the well-known dramatic masterpieces. You will notice that it is difficult to distinguish the individual work despite the upper part of the painting occupies the half of the whole work. By watching works drawn only on the top half of the masterpiece, the viewer will try to distinguish the original work and imagine where the place is and what the subject is.
It would be great if the new perspective gained by this exhibition would be an opportunity to reconsider the elements that make up the painting.