Chika Hattori, Asao Kawahara Solo Exhibition

Chika Hattori studied woodblock printmaking at Tama Art University and, after graduating, developed a distinctive oil-painting practice built on delicate gradation techniques. Working mainly with nature as her subject, she enlarges parts of animals, plants, or sea creatures to draw out their forms and curves. This exhibition centers on her recent works depicting succulents and marine life.

Asao Kawahara's works are made of elements existing in an unknowable space. For him, time is a necessity for touching the unknowable — truth, existence, love. Poetry, too, is an essential medium for his practice; without it, he says, no image and no work would have any meaning to him. He mostly paints landscapes that arise from imagination, working as though feeling his way through darkness.