"Kaika" Manabu Sato April 2009, 4 - May 27, 2009

The exhibition "Solution to Summer" will be held.
Venue: Art Gallery T+
Date: December 2009, 4 - January 27, 2009
Exhibitor: Manabu Sato (1st year student in the Japanese painting field at the Graduate School of Comprehensive Human Sciences)

This is a solo exhibition that will feature Japanese paintings in the T+ space.
My work is based on the theme of things that knot and unravel without stagnation, like the seasons.

T+review

A tornado rising from the dark sky, lightning bolts bursting - a dragon. My first impression, which I was almost certain of, was quickly denied by the exhibitor, Manabu Sato, who happened to be there, who said, "No, it's not a dragon." Dragons are imaginary creatures that have appeared in ancient Chinese and Indian mythology, and are said to bring clouds and rain. The black darkness that occupies the top two-thirds of the screen looks a bit like a black cloud, and on all four sides of the white streaks that spiral from the bottom of the screen upwards into the sky, there are flashes of white lightning that seem as if they are about to explode and thunder can be heard.
It is just like a dragon.
"It does look that way, doesn't it? But the image at the root of it is actually of an eel."
Sato had memories of fishing for eels with his father in his hometown in the summer when he was a child. The slimy texture of the eel, the way it moved in his hands. He used those memories as a springboard to create the work. The image changed little by little as he moved his brush. And so the masterpiece "Unraveling Summer" was completed.
The white spiral unravels as it rises into the sky, as if something tightly knotted is being released. At the beginning of the spiral, a mist hangs over it, just like the rushing water of a waterfall. This flow seems to connect to the muddy current at the bottom left of the painting. What is it that is flowing? The rough texture of the mineral pigments has a strange sense of reality, and the air of the flowing world is delivered to where I am.
"When I brought it in, it was unexpectedly small," Sato said with a wry smile, gazing at the more than 2m tall work that was hung diagonally from the gallery ceiling and reached all the way down to the floor. "I've got a solo exhibition scheduled for next March at the Tsukuba Museum of Art. I'll paint on a much larger canvas then." His strong, straight eyes in his calm expression certainly don't seem to be those of an eel.
(Asako Zenna)