Shunsuke Imai
Stressing that his paintings have no meaning beyond visual stimulation Shunsuke Imai creates graphic, colorful, and eye catching paintings that promote free flowing movement despite clean lines and rigid color blocking. Imai equates his work to the vibrant night streets of Tokyo. It’s neon signs, vapid stores, and vivid scenes hold no buoyancy, creating a void in connection. Although Imai’s work warps perceptions by exploring depth, symmetry, and movement, he is clear to display his work as nothing but a painting. His early work, while still striking and abstract, deals with images of pornography downloaded from the internet. By breaking the nude body into ambiguous shapes and forms overlapped with images of flowers it becomes difficult to recognize the subject matter from a glance. Only after fixing the eye on these works can the viewer recognize young people embracing in beautiful compositions rather than obscene pornographic images.
Imai has recently held solo exhibitions at Hagiwara Projects in Tokyo, Gallery Kart in Tokyo, See Saw gallery + cafe in Aichi, Japan, and Shiseido Gallery in Tokyo. Additionally he has contributed numerous times to group exhibitions at galleries throughout Tokyo such as Komagome SOKO, INTERMEDIATHEQUE, XYZ Collective, Mime, YOKAISOHO, and The Ueno …
Stressing that his paintings have no meaning beyond visual stimulation Shunsuke Imai creates graphic, colorful, and eye catching paintings that promote free flowing movement despite clean lines and rigid color blocking. Imai equates his work to the vibrant night streets of Tokyo. It’s neon signs, vapid stores, and vivid scenes hold no buoyancy, creating a void in connection. Although Imai’s work warps perceptions by exploring depth, symmetry, and movement, he is clear to display his work as nothing but a painting. His early work, while still striking and abstract, deals with images of pornography downloaded from the internet. By breaking the nude body into ambiguous shapes and forms overlapped with images of flowers it becomes difficult to recognize the subject matter from a glance. Only after fixing the eye on these works can the viewer recognize young people embracing in beautiful compositions rather than obscene pornographic images.
Imai has recently held solo exhibitions at Hagiwara Projects in Tokyo, Gallery Kart in Tokyo, See Saw gallery + cafe in Aichi, Japan, and Shiseido Gallery in Tokyo. Additionally he has contributed numerous times to group exhibitions at galleries throughout Tokyo such as Komagome SOKO, INTERMEDIATHEQUE, XYZ Collective, Mime, YOKAISOHO, and The Ueno Royal Museum.
