AG Art Gallery Section/ Past Exhibitions

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Yoichi Ota

2/20 - 7/17/2004
Opening Reception: 2/20, Friday, 7-11pm

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Brooklyn, NY - February 17, 2004 - About Glamour, Inc. presents Yoichi Ota, Japanese painter at its gallery from February 20, 2004 to March 17. At this exhibition, "Large and (un) Important," the artist exhibits his most recent works.

The artist, Yoichi Ota, is from Kyoto, studied painting and graduated from Hunter College of CUNY. It is awkward to categorize artwork based on nationalities and backgrounds of artists; however, it is natural for an audience to expect seeing "small, sensitive and well-arranged artwork" at the exhibition just because he is a Japanese painter. The fact that Japan is a "small, sensitive and well-arranged" country tends to push people to categorize his work into the group of Japanese. Moreover, there are many cases in which as soon as a viewer sees an artwork, s/he is able to tell that the artist is from Japan even though the artist has studied art in a foreign country for awhile.

Mr. Ota's paintings, however, cannot be categorized as a Japanese artwork. The only "Japaneseness" that the viewer may sense is "the spirit of a true Japanese workmanship". He chooses a large canvas to work with and selects dynamic, but simple objects to paint. It must be difficult to assume his nationality from his paintings. He carefully but freely draws his objects to paint. It must be difficult to assume his nationality from his paintings. He carefully but freely draws his objects based on photographs he has taken from all over the U.S. Because of the fact that his work is based on a photograph, he has to be conscious about the "meaning of painting a photograph".

There are certain differences between a photograph and a painting. One of the differences is a filter created by Mr. Ota. Imagine observing a stone in a clear glass box. The stone is just a simple stone; however, once the box is covered by half-transparent fabrics such as organdy or chiffon, the stone would look different; it is no longer a simple stone. Mr. Ota is an artisan who creates a filter for a photograph. Because he chooses simple material for his artwork, depending on the filter, the impression would be completely different. It is one of his goals he wants to achieve - to continuously polish the filters.

Looking at his artwork will give any viewer a chance to brush aside general ideas, such as "a stone is just a stone- not worth viewing" or "Japanese artists create small, sensitive and well arranged artwork". One may summarize that Mr. Ota removes the viewer's filter by replacing it with his filter. His most recent paintings will be exhibited at About Glamour, Inc., (Brooklyn, New York) until March 17, 2004. The opening reception will be held at the gallery of About Glamour from 7 PM to 11 PM on February 20, 2004 (Friday).

Opening Reception

[Artist Statement]

My recent works are painted from photographs. A photographic rendering of a scene imposes factuality and objectifies my painting, although I am deeply connected to each painted scene and all kinds of memories are attached to them. I try to avoid having an apparent central theme or narrative in each work because my focus lies only in the formation of a relationship between objects, figures, and the space constructed by them. My intent is to present them as if they are caught just before there is a formation of a narrative or before something of meaning happens.

My painting process originates in my daily life experience as I carry around a camera and shoot what is in front of me. By limiting my choice of images to those places and events in my personal life, I try to defy the influence of media and commercially driven value judgments on the way I look at the world and myself.

The precise date and place of the photograph on which my painting is based is given as the title, because it reasserts the indexical nature of the work. Each painting is a reification of the world at a certain moment, as I believe everything is connected to everything and what I see is a distilled universe.

I would like to continue studying at Hunter Collegeﾕs graduate program, with professors whose judgments I trust and who have helped me grow as an artist and improve my work in the last four years.