| Tokyo is gray. Painter, Naomi Van
Holbutt-Kirk, is inspired by the city's many shades Ð- the blue gray of
temple tiles and the gray of the morning mist. This exhibition, presents
Van Holbutt-Kirk's paintings prepared since arriving over two years ago
from Britain. Influenced by the architectural writer/critic Jun'ichiro Tanizaki
and his essay on aesthetics, In Praise of Shadows, Van Holbutt-Kirk's paintings
'Épush back into the shadows the things that come forward too clearly [and]
Éstrip away the useless decoration.' Her art captures the flicker of sunlight
through leaves and the memory of a shadow on the bitumen road. She paints
these subtle shadows, in oils on linen, scumbling the surface to create
a lyrical softness. Nothing is clear, nothing crisp. Her paintings glow
like the last rays of sunlight. They evoke a sense of place but are only
fragments of forgotten details, tantalizingly out of focus and just out
of memory's reach. Van Holbutt-Kirk's canvases are almost monotones, yet
they are neither sparse nor minimal but rich in tone and timbre. Her abstract
paintings evoke a Japan of shadowy alleys and courtyards, glimpsed through
a partially opened screen door. It is a dappled and gentle place. |
|