Exhibitions 2019

Shunsuke Imai

Shunsuke Imai, “untitled” 2018; acrylic on canvas. 115 x 92 cm

Shunsuke Imai 今井俊介 (Tokyo)
Opening on Sunday 26 May 2019 at 11:30 a.m.
Welcome: Günter Oldekamp, City Director
Introduction: Gudrun Thiessen-Schneider, artistic director
Exhibition 16 May - 28 July 2019
Opening hours Mi-Sa: 15-18 h, Sun: 11-18 h / and after agreement

Shunsuke Imai's works are based on three basic elements of painting: Color, Form, and Space. His strongly colored paintings consist of overlapping layers of color, their appearance shares a common relationship to flags and their movement of how they wave in the wind.
He began creating his early works from images off of the internet. During this time of his creative process, he preferred to use Pop Art templates. Even today his illusionist images still strongly resemble Pop Art, they are merely thematized structures and avoid any form of representation. In addition to exploring the basic conditions of perception and the potential of two-dimensionality, he also explores the emptiness of images and the questionable information of today's society.
Imai is an artist who consciously deals with questions of body and space within and outside image, for both rely on the individual to look at together and closely. While the human eye first perceives a flat image, it also deceives depth and space at the same time.
Due to the physical and experiential nature of seeing, we perceive these points of view differently. The physical space outside of the picture (here it is the exhibition space with its white walls and the intersecting wall pieces) influences the individuals visual experience of the viewer. Imai deconstructs the system of illusionist painting by choosing his motifs from objects he has constructed himself, and invites the viewer to take part on a journey of visual experience.
Shunsuke Imai was born in 1978 in Fukui, Japan and graduated in 2004 with a Master for Arts degree from Musashino Art University in Tokyo. He lives and works in Tokyo, Japan.

In collaboration with 萩原ゆかり Yukari Hagiwara, Tokyo