Akika Kurata “When I came back to myself”
I visited Akika Kurata’s solo exhibition “When I came back to myself” at Miura Jiro Gallery.
It was only the second day of the show, but many works — including the largest pieces — already bore red “sold” stickers, and the buzz was tangible.
Kurata herself was on-site, so I had the chance to speak with her.
After looking through the show, what caught my eye was that every support she uses is “silk.” The extreme fineness of the silk gives the works an extraordinarily smooth sheen — a truly silken touch.
What deserves special attention is her handling of skin. A subtle hint of grey — or rather blue — gives the flesh a distinctive flavor. Even in acrylic, the surface never feels matte; instead there is a real sense of transparency. All of the works are portraits of women, and she apparently paints friends as her models. By chance, one of the friend-models was also at the gallery.
The women’s expressions, too, are not the standard beautiful-women-painting type; she seems to capture subtle expressions that mirror an inner life.
“When I came back to myself” was also shown at the Sato Museum of Art before this solo exhibition. It is a work of tremendous impact.
The work that caught my eye had unfortunately already sold. She is an artist to watch. Every woman rendered in these works has a piercing gaze — I came away with the impression that they are looking squarely at their era and surviving it head-on.
