Kazuhito Tanaka: Picture(s)

An abstract painting, a composition of torn chromogenic photograms exposed in the darkroom, and an acrylic box sealing their fate. There is no hierarchy to their plane, they influence each other while presenting their differences as a medium. A conversation is present that is devoid of these mediums’ historic tensions. Ripped and folded photograms are layered and emerging off the canvas. They mimic the paint strokes while their color and sculptural form are evidently more vivid than the paint. Painting, who are you? Photography, who are you? Or, who am I, without imagery? 

Kazuhito Tanaka (born 1973 in Saitama, Japan) lives and works in Kyoto. He studied at Meiji University in 1996 followed by a graduate degree at the School of Visual Arts, New York in 2004. Tanaka questions the relations between photography and painting, exploring new abstract expressions using photography. He also is an independent curator that is parallel with his artist practice. He is the director soda, an artist-run space in Kyoto founded in 2018.

Recent solo exhibitions include Gravity and Light, soda, Kyoto (2020), Self-Dual, Gallery PARC, Kyoto (2019), Trans / Real -The potential of Intangible Art vol.7 Kazuhito Tanaka, gallery αM, Tokyo (2017), pLastic_fLowers, Maki Fine Arts, Tokyo (2015), etc. Recent group exhibitions include Wind and Images, Sprout Curation, Tokyo (2021), TAMA VIVANT II, Tama Art University, Tokyo (2019), NEW BALANCE #3, XYZ collective, Tokyo (2015), hyper-materiality on photo, G/P gallery shinonome, Tokyo (2015), etc. Recent curations include Never the Same Ocean, soda + HAGIWARA PROJECTS, Tokyo (2021), S/F -Photography, or a Monolith after 200 years-, KAYOKOYUKI + soda, Tokyo (2019),  Photographs by 7 Painters, soda, Kyoto (2018), Her Name is ABSTRA, Daido-Soko, Kyoto (2012), etc. He was awarded the Tokyo Frontline Photo Award in 2011.