21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa

Keita Morimoto (1990-) immigrated to Canada at the age of 16, and has exhibited his works mostly in Canada and elsewhere overseas. Morimoto chose to study classical painting techniques, and his unique depictions of contemporary urban landscapes leave a strong impression on the viewer. He has a strong interest in how “light,” which has been an important issue in painting since the modern era, is represented, and his depictions of artificial light from street lamps, billboards, and vending machines imbue his paintings with a lyrical atmosphere. Morimoto also creates collages from photographs of people and landscapes that have been taken separately, before proceeding to reconstruct them with paint on the canvas, an approach that confers a kind of anonymity onto these people and landscapes. The spaces and people depicted in these works occupy a kind of boundary between fiction and reality: while it seems as if they might exist everywhere, the reality is that they cannot be found anywhere. Viewers are drawn into these works, which leave some room for their memory and imagination. Morimoto’s work follows in the lineage of Edward Hopper and Peter Doig, artists that he has openly stated as influences. It represents an attempt to demonstrate how the contemporary city can be portrayed. Faced with these seemingly familiar landscapes and people, where reality and fiction blur into each other, we superimpose our own emotions and memories onto them. Through Morimoto’s works, this exhibition will provide an opportunity for each viewer to reassess their own reality and everyday routine, and to reconsider the power of painting as a format of artistic expression.