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Tomu Osaki "Impossible Theorems: The Painting as a Platonic Circle"
Gallery Common
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Artists
Tomu Osaki
Born in 1984, Japanese artist Tomu Osaki draws inspiration from his own experiences and memories to create paintings in which diverse motifs coexist within a single pictorial surface.
Osaki’s practice is characterized by the simultaneous development of multiple works, a method that emerges organically from the material properties of painting itself. The necessity of waiting for paint layers to dry provides natural pauses, aligning perfectly with Osaki’s artistic temperament, which seeks to immediately explore and experiment with new ideas as they arise. His canvases are often characterized by scattered motifs that look as if they were haphazardly thrown on top of each other. The artist refers to his approach as sanpukō, a self-coined phrase that roughly translates to “a reconsideration of the scatter plot,” in reference to this act of dispersing motifs. This method evokes the structure of a musical fugue*, in which overlapping refrains are repeated and layered. In works in his “Traffic Accident” series, for example, Osaki utilizes a single frame to depict the Greek goddess of fate, Clotho, alongside the wreckage of a demolished car, forcing incongruous images of stability and instability to inhabit the same space.
Encountering Osaki’s work is a process of continual discovery; a return to the fundamental pleasure of "looking at paintings.” This is undoubtedly related to the fact that his paintings are, in essence, "paintings about painting." This can be seen in the way that Osaki purposefully subverts the logical order of painting: in his work, it is not the background, but the foreground motifs that are painted first. Elements situated deeper in the pictorial space are painted last. This sequence follows no conventional sense of efficiency, reflecting a deliberate deviation and regression from the presumed "rules" of painting. At the same time, Osaki does not completely reject tradition. Before embarking on larger works, he carefully prepares detailed studies, adhering to practices followed by generations of painters before him. In this way, his approach moves fluidly between innovation and convention. Going off the beaten path while also using it as a guide, Osaki weaves his way inside and outside the established structures of painting. In this exhibition, the artist invites us to try and “decode” not only the individual works but also the interrelations among them—a network that could be called the "Osaki Universe," where paintings-within-paintings and recurring references circulate across canvases, creating their own distinct language and meaning.
*A fugue is a form of music in which a note or refrain is played then successively taken up by others, creating a melody that is developed through overlapping and repetition; a state in which a central part is imitated and repeated by other sounds.
Osaki’s practice is characterized by the simultaneous development of multiple works, a method that emerges organically from the material properties of painting itself. The necessity of waiting for paint layers to dry provides natural pauses, aligning perfectly with Osaki’s artistic temperament, which seeks to immediately explore and experiment with new ideas as they arise. His canvases are often characterized by scattered motifs that look as if they were haphazardly thrown on top of each other. The artist refers to his approach as sanpukō, a self-coined phrase that roughly translates to “a reconsideration of the scatter plot,” in reference to this act of dispersing motifs. This method evokes the structure of a musical fugue*, in which overlapping refrains are repeated and layered. In works in his “Traffic Accident” series, for example, Osaki utilizes a single frame to depict the Greek goddess of fate, Clotho, alongside the wreckage of a demolished car, forcing incongruous images of stability and instability to inhabit the same space.
Encountering Osaki’s work is a process of continual discovery; a return to the fundamental pleasure of "looking at paintings.” This is undoubtedly related to the fact that his paintings are, in essence, "paintings about painting." This can be seen in the way that Osaki purposefully subverts the logical order of painting: in his work, it is not the background, but the foreground motifs that are painted first. Elements situated deeper in the pictorial space are painted last. This sequence follows no conventional sense of efficiency, reflecting a deliberate deviation and regression from the presumed "rules" of painting. At the same time, Osaki does not completely reject tradition. Before embarking on larger works, he carefully prepares detailed studies, adhering to practices followed by generations of painters before him. In this way, his approach moves fluidly between innovation and convention. Going off the beaten path while also using it as a guide, Osaki weaves his way inside and outside the established structures of painting. In this exhibition, the artist invites us to try and “decode” not only the individual works but also the interrelations among them—a network that could be called the "Osaki Universe," where paintings-within-paintings and recurring references circulate across canvases, creating their own distinct language and meaning.
*A fugue is a form of music in which a note or refrain is played then successively taken up by others, creating a melody that is developed through overlapping and repetition; a state in which a central part is imitated and repeated by other sounds.
Schedule | Jun 7 (Sat) 2025-Jul 6 (Sun) 2025 Opening Hours Information
Opening Reception Jun 6 (Fri) 2025 19:00 - 21:00 | ||||
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| Fee | Free | ||||
| Website | https://www.gallerycommon.com/en/exhibitions/tomu_osaki_2025 | ||||
| Venue | Gallery Common http://www.gallerycommon.com/ | ||||
| Location | B1F, 5-39-6 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0001 | ||||
| Access | 6 minute walk from exit A1 at Omotesando Station on the Hanzomon, Chiyoda and Ginza lines. 8 minute walk from exit 7 at Meiji-jingumae Station on the Chiyoda and Fukutoshin lines. 9 minute walk from exit B7 at JR Shibuya Station. | ||||
| Phone | 03-6427-3827 | ||||
| Related images | Click on the image to enlarge it |
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