YUGEN Gallery will be holding Seirei Suzuki's solo exhibition "Recomposition" from December 2nd (Saturday) to December 11th (Monday).

Fusion of abstract expression and calligraphy

 

 

The splash of paint on the sharp brushstrokes of the cold color surface, reminiscent of ice. Seirei Suzuki is an artist who is attracting attention for her abstract paintings that balance rationally constructed geometric elements with lines that exude physicality. She develops a majestic worldview by combining Western abstract expression, which she has been influenced by, with the essence of Japanese avant-garde calligraphy.

Seirei Suzuki began her career as an artist in earnest in 2021, and has received various art awards so far. In 2023, "Contemporary Artist Exhibition: Silhouettes of Beauty" (Mitsuo Aida Art Museum) has attracted 2,000 people, and exhibited at "World Art Dubai," one of the largest art events in the Middle East held in Dubai, making it an incredible momentum since debut. 

When she visited Melbourne, Australia, when she was 20 years old, she was impressed by the way art was rooted everywhere in the city, including train stations and libraries, and went on to study graphic design and Western painting at Griffith University Queensland College of Art. It has expanded.

Pursuing elegant line expression

While studying digital techniques such as 3D and animation, she became interested in surrealism. Ever since she was a child, Suzuki had no interest in faithfully replicating what was in front of her, and felt that she wanted to portray the inner world of people. Inspired by the works of surrealism, she encountered abstract expressions such as action painting. Suzuki, who has a "line fetish where my eyes are always drawn to streamlines swirling on the surface of water or mountain ridgelines,"was particularly attracted to the organic line expressions.

“When I encountered abstract expression represented by Jackson Pollock, I was overwhelmed and strongly influenced by his free style of expression and the power of larger-than-life lines.On the other hand, Pollock's all-over expression that filled the screen , it gave the impression that each line was crowded together and looked painful, so I started to think that I wanted to create a sense of dynamism in the strokes I drew, and to express the feeling that each line was alive.''

After returning to Japan, Suzuki studied under a calligrapher in order to pursue the possibilities of line expression. She aimed to create expressions that combine the spatiality and breath of lines inherent in calligraphy art with Western abstract expression. What she tried to depict is natural beauty. She says that the ultimate beauty lies in natural beauty, and explores new aesthetics by integrating traditional techniques, the latest technology, and Eastern and Western art techniques.

“The flow of a river seems irregular but regular, disharmonious but harmonious. There is no conflict in natural beauty. Even if you try to express it in words, it cannot be captured. I want to create works that stand between the unconscious and question sensations that go beyond verbal expression."

The series "The Soul Types" imagines human interaction before the invention of writing. "Isn't non-verbal communication such as telepathy and feeling like a crystallization of sensibilities that resonate together?We visualize the phenomenon in which the sensibilities of each person resonate that cannot be expressed in words." Another work, "Creation of Heaven and Earth,"was completed by removing unnecessary things, "like a single piece of wood in a sculpture," without assuming a form in advance. Each of these works depicts the conflict between the parts humans try to control and the parts they cannot control, in other words, the conscious and unconscious, and it is felt that beauty resides in this tension.

Aesthetics arising from the lines of the whole body

Literary and art critic Harold Rosenberg describes the concept of action painting, a form of American abstract expressionism, as saying, "An image is ultimately a tension relationship,"and he sees the canvas as a place where events occur. After the appearance of Jackson Pollock, the form, color, and composition of the canvas were merely supporting elements, and emphasis was placed on the physicality of the artist's struggle with the material.

Seirei Suzuki pursues the aesthetics of line through various experiments such as cutting her own brushes and creating tools that cannot be found anywhere else. She considers the present era to be an "era of integration," as we face many issues such as race, religion, and gender, and aims to rebuild a new era by incorporating not only the use of tools but also diverse values, old and new. We advocate "Recompositon." The raw energy of fighting with the material and the reality of living in the present are generated in the line of the whole body.