“Animals in Paintings”
I visited the group exhibition “Animals in Paintings” by four artists at Bambinart Gallery.
Within the shared theme of “animals,” each artist’s distinctive way of painting gave the impression that, inside the cage-like space of the small gallery, the works were quietly asserting their own territories against one another — a fascinating atmosphere indeed.
While red “sold” stickers were scoring this quiet battle, each visitor to the gallery fixed their gaze intently on their favorite animals.
Bambinart Gallery is pleased to present the group show “Animals in Paintings.” From the prehistoric cave paintings of Lascaux and Altamira to contemporary painting, even as the role of painting has shifted and diversified, “animals” have continued to be depicted within it. In earlier eras, the animals that were depicted served as objects of prayer, or as metaphors symbolizing something within the context of myth or religion. In Leonardo da Vinci’s “Lady with an Ermine,” the ermine is depicted as a symbol of moderation and a noble animal that shuns impurity; in Goya’s “The Dog,” the dog stands as a symbol of the painter’s own loneliness and helplessness in his difficult circumstances. In Japan too, many animal paintings have been produced, beginning with kacho-ga (bird-and-flower painting) in which a wide range of plants and animals carry allegorical meaning. This exhibition, by entrusting the long-depicted theme of “animals” to contemporary artists with differing creative vectors and techniques, seeks to explore the character of the “contemporary” through those very engagements.
Among the participating artists, Ryu Kawada explores the essence of painting by tracing and reconstructing the surface of Western painting through a contemporary lens; Kyohei Naito forms a rhizome born from weaving simple line drawings into imagery quoted from classical painting. Yui Hayashi depicts scenes in which humidity and body warmth can be felt, centered on motifs from her surroundings and moments of everyday life; Mamoru Hirata produces paintings born from a dialogue between the images that arise and the mediums that give rise to them.
In our present era, when the very framework and perception of the world are being transformed, the way animals and painting relate to each other will likewise shift into a new dimensional axis. So long as painting does not disappear, the animals within paintings will continue to be with us, telling the story of the age.
Mamoru Hirata
Kyohei Naito
Ryu Kawada
