Akio Nagasawa Gallery Aoyama is pleased to announce the opening of CONCEALER an exhibition of works by Marefumi Komura.

Born in 1977, Marefumi Komura is a painter who is presently based in Tokyo. The title of this exhibition, “Concealer” is at once the name of a cosmetic product that is used for masking little stains or flecks on the skin. According to the artist, there are two different sides to the expression “to conceal.” On the one side, there are the wrong/negative aspects of “concealment” in modern society and everyday life, which lead to doubt, mistrust and irritation. On the right/positive side is the aspect of “obscuring” rather than openly revealing the style of a painting.

The matter of “painting and concealment” can be regarded as being closely linked to art history at large, and at once also to Komura’s own “Subtract” series of abstract paintings. Canvases that are covered with paint, or paintings that were once drawn but then erased again, evoke connotations of concealment: “hate and violence,” “racism,” “anonymity,” and “real/fake.”
Shown at this exhibition, in addition to new canvas works, are several small “Tissue” sculptures that were specially created for this occasion. The “oil on aluminum” objects have a smooth, silk-like texture, and depending on the perspective and lighting conditions, the viewer is vaguely reflected in their surface. Komura borrowed the familiar image of the tissue that we wad up and throw away, charged it with the consistent notion of being ever-so-fleeting, and now connects it to the gallery space and the “Subtract” paintings.

Audible at regular intervals at the venue, are sounds from Komura’s own “End Loop” series of looped, fading final notes of musical pieces related to “concealment”.

Komura’s Subtract paintings could be said to be about the simple idea that “less is more”. They are about simplicity. He has described his work as an “attempt to express fragility, impermanence and imperfection.” End Loop fits in neatly with these concepts. They are very fragile sounds, they hover on one note without motivation or direction, their origins unknowable; they are dying as they are beginning, always fading, always being reborn to fade again… – End Loop Henka by Robert Millis

Inspired by the idea behind “End Loop” to “bring the temporal art of music closer to the spatial art of painting,” here the artist creatively explores the relationship between painting and sound, while focusing on the subtly moving effect that only sound can achieve.

The booklet Tissues is published concurrently with the exhibition.

We are looking forward to your visit.