004 → Midnight Spaghetti, Aki Kuroda
Press Release
Press Release for the second solo exhibition of Japanese artist Aki Kuroda—titled “Midnight Spaghetti.” This exhibition demonstrates the reverence and simplicity of Kuroda’s work through its color palette and technique. The quotes have been translated from French, and the complete text is featured in the exhibition catalog, which was designed by me.
Born in 1944 in Kyoto, Aki Kuroda is an artist renowned for embracing chaos, employing diverse mixed media with various perspectives at play. For Kuroda, there are no limitations or rules when conceiving his art; he has ventured into performance, literature, and ballet set design. In a candid conversation between East and West, Kuroda plays with space and time, merging the past, present, and future to create a timeless interpretation of contemporary art intersecting with modern mythology and cosmology.
Symbolically, Kuroda employs the visual repetition of intimate characters, including his famous bunny seen in the piece RABBIT (2015), faces featured in the piece MEDUSA (2019), floral arrangements, and versions of caryatids. Kuroda draws from the exchange of body and energy, bringing the inside out and the outside inward. A simple illustration of this exchange occurs when his caryatids occasionally morph into portals or openings to other realms.
Despite the depth of his themes, Kuroda plays with lightness
and whimsical ease, which is evident in his expressive
strokes and vivid hues. Kuroda’s blues and yellows bring
deep luminosity into his artworks. This exhibition sketches
a new story and strips itself of the color wheel, finding
homage in the neutrals - deep blacks and subdued whites.
For this exhibition, Aki Kuroda resurrects his first black paintings, commented on by the filmmaker and writer Marguerite Duras in 1980. Similar to Henri Matisse, who was known for painting with color, Kuroda's works on a black background remain emblematic of his vision. While recognized for his extraordinarily luminous and shimmering paintings, Kuroda purposefully creates his blacked-out portraits. When Aki Kuroda goes black, without straying from his universe, we discover his singular writing, humor, and amused view of the society around him. It testifies as much to his hope as to his concern for the world of tomorrow.
Kuroda employs a specific painting style in his predominantly black paintings; instead of “adding” paint, he must “remove” it, creating an incredible, dazzling trance. Paint is quickly spread out flat on his huge canvases, and there, he leans like an acrobat over the still fluid material with a sure and lively line as he scrapes the black, letting the white of the skillfully prepared undercoat appear. No repentance and no retouching are possible.
In Aki Kuroda's upcoming exhibition, his timeless interpretation of contemporary art merges past, present, and future, offering a whimsical yet profound exploration. With playful ease, he brings forth a visual symphony of intimate characters, such as his iconic bunny and caryatids, alluding to an exchange of body and energy. Evoking both depth and lightness, Kuroda's use of blues and yellows adds luminosity to his artworks, while his revival of black paintings becomes a canvas for his singular writing and amused societal commentary. As we step into Kuroda's blacked-out portraits, we witness a dazzling trance, a unique artistic vision that leaves an indelible mark on the ever-evolving landscape of contemporary art.
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