KIYOSHI KAWAGUCHI “The Window: People in the City”

KIYOSHI KAWAGUCHI
“The Window: People in the City”
September 3 – September 21, 2013
Reception Saturday, September 7, 4-6pm

Chelsea: Viridian Artists, Inc. is pleased to present KIYOSHI KAWAGUCHI’s exhibition of acrylic paintings, “The window: People in the City” September 3 – September 21,  with a reception Saturday, September 7th, 4-6pm.

Tokyo artist Kiyoshi Kawaguchi’s artistic aims involve giving confidence & encouragement to people “who” in the words of the artist “were tossed by the hard wave of the age”. Kiyoshi Kawaguchi’s paintings of urban life synthesize with irony and humor the exuberance and rhythms of city life in paintings that are a perfect blend of his native Japan’s love of Jazz improvisation and the classical sophistication of early modernist painters of the 30’s.

He returns to Viridian, showing here in 1978 and more recently in 2010, with paintings that are stronger and more enigmatically telling of the craziness of today’s world.

In this show, his focus is on the profiles of people in the city as seen through the windows of urban life. Like Stuart Davis in the 30’s, his art contains strong vibes of social activism. He feels the weigh of living with today’s pressures to be hard on the people of the world but is conscious of the strength of individuals. Because of his belief in the suffering of the poor and the powers of the super-rich, Kawaguchi uses his paintings to convey a sense of the common man’s energy and resilience.

Walter Wickiser of Walter Wickiser Gallery, Inc. says ” Kiyoshi Kawaguchi …synthesizes classical American 30′s and 40′s traditionalism with Japanese modern day technology and craziness of city life… While other artists ignore the world situation and brand their works with Louie Vuitton, Kawaguchi foresees the future and tells it through his cryptic paintings.”

Deidre S. Greben, former Managing Editor of ARTnews, speaking of Kawaguchi’s paintings, states “Like Piet Mondrian and Stuart Davis, Kawaguchi captures the exuberance and complex rhythms of city life with simple geometry and vibrant color. Kawaguchi paints bright pictures of a hyperlinked humankind full of possibilities– including being tangled by it’s own connections.”

Following his exhibition at Viridian, he will be showing his Jazz paintings at Gallery Okabe in Tokyo in December.  We look forward to your joining us at this exciting new exhibit at Viridian Artists.