We are pleased to announce our presentation of “Jewel Beetle and Mouse”, Kazuyuki Takezaki’s 7th solo exhibition with the gallery.
Since 2015,Takezaki has lived in Kochi prefecture, Shodoshima Island and Marugame; his studio environment changed and a new approach to landscape began.

Important solo and group exhibitions in recent years include “Marugame, Milwaukee”, The Green Gallery, Milwaukee (solo exhibition in 2023) “Kazuyuki Takezaki”, Saanen Vitrine (presented by Marc Jancou), Saanen, Switzerland (solo exhibition in 2023), “It rained, then it became sunny”, Kochi Prefectural Museum of Art, Kochi (2020 Solo Exhibition) “Painters’’, Nakata Museum of Art, Hiroshima (2019 Group Exhibition) “The Place of Painting’’, Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery (2014 Group Exhibition) and “Real Japanesque: Inside the World” “Japanese Contemporary Art” National Museum of Art, Osaka (2012 group exhibition). In November 2023, as part of the Echigo-Tsumari MonET series of exhibitions, Takezaki is presenting a collaborative project together with artist Yu Nishimura; “Continued Parallel Small Boat Songs: Midori no Utsuwa’’, at the Echigo-Tsumari Satoyama Museum of Contemporary Art.

Jewel Beetle and Mouse Kazuyuki Takezaki

Living in the plains of Marugame of Kagawa Prefecture, a part of the Setouchi region, the scenery oftentimes appears through the cloudy daytime air.
The white and soft blue turns at dusk, and when it turns yellow, the world suddenly becomes one of complicated and beautiful colors. In the painting titled “Orange”, I am simply tracing this color.
Supporting this vivid time of color is the time of gray; multiple shades of grey. I think that the beautiful light also has this beautiful gray color.

At dusk, I often see the town horizontally divided into upper and lower halves by transparent and opaque color. The landscape is centered and looks like a horizontal plan.The color of the town and the shining trees against the stagnant gray sky, which looks like solid gouache, and the town dark but the sky bright , overlapping, linking, and a deeply transparent color.

Recently, I think my painting palate is like the dusk of a populated town. I believe that the act of mixing colors and making ideal colors, is mostly an unconscious process. I feel that kneading the paint amounts to a cooperation between the logics of life and death which envelop this town.

【Statement of the works 】

Higan (Another World)

I have heard that living things other than humans have no logic of death.
If so, if there is such a thing as existence in this world, it is the human world itself; I sometime wonder if the place called afterlife is the place called nature.
The place where I live, seems to be a place that connects to another world.

Secret Place

This spring water is hidden in-between a riverbank and a prefectural road; it is surrounded by trees.
Unintentionally, the structure of the city has protected spring water from humans.
Since ancient times, this land has had a scarcity of water, so the spring water has been important.
However, in the present time, water facilities have come into being and spring water is no longer necessary for humans until they face an emergency.
There are many birds where there is spring water and few people.
I don’t want to share to see this beautiful place with many people.

 

Plant Weed

One day while I was walking, I saw a weed almost withered on a concrete path.
Rising up from the concrete cracks, illuminated by the afternoon sun, I don’t know it’s name but it was beautiful
Just stopping by, just realizing it’s a small story
It is true that small encounters change my world,
Well, I think I made an encounter with this weed, and I will never forget it.

Double negative

South town, double mountain range was exact in East West.
The Mountain is protecting the town from rain and wind,
The Mountain is stopping water from going through the town.

 

The Last fisherman

For people in the countryside, nature’s taste has become that of the outdoors.
To enjoy this, it is necessary to drive to reach a place rich in nature
There is a small beautiful beach at the end of the peninsula where the legend of Urashima lives.
I met a very tough looking elderly guy who had tan skin and sunglasses.
This guy is living in the house which overlooks the beach; he cleans the beach and monitors illegal dumping.
He is the last fishman in this village.
He laughed and said he uses these sunglasses to look threatening to the illegal dumpers.

Jewel Beetle and Mouse

The beetles are the colors that come from the tube.
The mouse is the mess of paint left over from mixing it with a palette.
The jewel beetles make paintings, and the mouse supports them.
The lights of the town I live in are vague, beautiful and dirty mixed together.