HRD FINE ART

Introduction

HRD Fine Art is pleased to announce the opening of a group exhibition titled "Spiritual Landscape ・◯▲□ (dot/circle/triangle/square)," on display from February through March 2021. This exhibition is co-curated by artist Tsutomu Haraguchi and HRD Fine Art as the sequel of "Spiritual Landscape" exhibition held at Eureka in Fukuoka in 2019.

The 2019 exhibition was inspired by the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquakes that shook central areas of Kyushu Island in April 2016. It focused on the conditions of human life faced with tremendous energy of nature and the earth. This year, the Kyoto edition of the project combines three artists from the Fukuoka version (Hirotsugu Ueno, Nao Sano, and Tsutomu Haraguchi) with two new artists who have ties with Kyoto (Moe Amano and Kaori Tanaka), while introducing a new theme: "mountain" as a symbol of regionality and spirituality. Painting and installation are the main features of the show, with five participating artists working together to create an integrated "landscape" within the whole space of the gallery.

In this exhibition, two remote places that are characterized with different cultures and histories, namely Kyushu and Kyoto, are linked through a broad variety of artworks and expressions presented by the five artists. And as a result, various keywords such as climate and landscape, geography and history, regionality and art, and more, emerge before us as if in a powerful volcanic eruption.

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Co-curator's Statement

Back in 2019, I organized a group show themed on "landscape" in Fukuoka, which referred to a series of big earthquakes that took place in Kumamoto in 2016. Titled "Spiritual Landscape," the exhibition centered on painting, while overlaying man-made boundaries with natural geographic conditions. Our intention was to nullify "artificiality."

Now, the exhibition "Spiritual Landscape ・◯▲□ (dot/circle/triangle/square)" consists of a group of artworks that stand side by side at the foot of "virtual mountain," with various thoughts and ideas rising up as part of an installation. The exhibition's main components are once again paintings, and it possesses the key that enables real landscapes to be integrated into human spirits.

Nao Sano creates sceneries that incite a sensation of deja-vu using countless dots. Hirotsugu Ueno paints transcending landscapes based on dioramas of his own making. Kaori Tanaka's colorful, ice cream-like majestic mountains are inspired by traditional Japanese gardens. Tsutomu Haraguchi tells stories that relate to forbidden ruins found in the mountain on Tsushima Island. Moe Amano derives a wide variety of expressions from her everyday life in Fukuoka's mountainous countryside.

This exhibition shows a landscape where realities and symbols switch with each other while going through the many layers of filters of human spirit. Beauty that can be seen scattered throughout, from center to periphery, is captured in a manner that is similar to overwriting images on a digital monitor.

About the exhibition title:

・ (dot) stands for a specific geographical spot. This spot is confined to a peripheral area, but it shines bright with spiritual brilliance all the more because of the local suppressions.
◯ (circle) symbolizes wholeness, as opposed to the locality of the dot.
▲ (triangle) stands for mountains as landscape.
□ (square) alludes to paintings, books, TV monitors, or smartphone screens. It symbolizes the prevalence and dominance of square shapes that expand in pace with the progress of human civilization.

- Tsutomu Haraguchi