Hino gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Shohatsu Suga from Monday, November 13th, 2017.

In the 1970s, when Suga began his career as an artist, he mainly presented installation work using square wooden logs and steel sheets. Soon afterwards he discovered raw cotton canvas, which was not such a common material at that time in Japan. Suga became immediately obsessed with the beauty of this material as a substance, and he shifted his creative focus onto making work with this type of canvas.

He was initially motivated by how he could accentuate the sort of brilliancy inherent in the canvas itself as a painting, and so he created work that allowed the purity of the surface to remain as it is, and only applied transparent medium at certain times, which made the surface turn a slightly brownish yellow. However, this approach producing painting that retain the inherent materiality of the surface eventually exposed problems relating to color and drawing: the inevitable elements for making paintings. Suga struggled to overcome these problems for many years but didn’t lose his interest in material objects – rather, he felt challenged by this obsession.

In the late 90s, he learned how to allow color to seep into the raw canvas and developed a process of rubbing transparent mediums into the stained canvas and leaving them to dry before recoating with acrylic color and wiping it off. Through this process the work yielded spontaneous forms and breath-like space. The unpredictable qualities from the material and color also caused the artist to physically react, bringing in act of drawing.

Some works included in this exhibition were made using this process however Suga considers this approach as further experimentation rather than simply remaking. This could also be considered the next phase of his creation.

Suga’s works will be showcased at hino gallery for the first time in 3 years. We hope you will enjoy his most recent paintings, which have been developed through reduction.