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EXHIBITION

MAKOTO SAITO: SCENE [0]

2008.8.2 (Sat.) - 2008.11.3 (Mon.)

Makoto Saito
Face Cut Out
2007
acrylic, oil ink on canvas
60 x 60 cm
©Makoto Saito

Information

Period :
2008.8.2 (Sat.) - 2008.11.3 (Mon.)
Venue :
21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa

About the Exhibition

The first large-scale solo exhibition in Japan devoted to Makoto Saito, a creator internationally renowned in the graphic design field. Through innovative expression in the 1980s and '90s, Saito shattered the norms of graphic design, and has since reshaped the design field. Now, in a much-anticipated exhibition of new works he will launch into the twenty-first century, Saito presents some 50 of the paintings he has been incubating for years. Saito's wide-ranging creative activities have heretofore emerged from a perpetual themeーhis investigation into the act of "seeing." In the mid- '90s, Saito began to explore the painting genre in earnest, alongside his activities in the design field. His paintings, this time, reflect as ever the penetrating eye he continually casts on contemporary life. Among their subjects are movies, a medium of special meaning to him that he has felt close to since childhood. Capturing a single, instantaneous shot from a movie, he boldly deconstructs it employing the contemporary filter of digital technology. The exhibition will provide a glimpse into Saito's present creative world and his endeavor to expand the act of "seeing" to an act of "depicting."

The human figures we encounter in these paintings are veiled in a frosty cold atmosphere from which we sense no warmth. From a temperatureless zero pointーSCENE [0]ーa disquieting world slowly emerges. It is as if the artist were consciously defying today's trend of conveniently seeking healing in warmth and naturalness. Saito's pictorial space, constructed using his own unique motifs and textures, captures the feel of our times and portrays us, the people of contemporary society, with merciless objectivity.

*exclusive site
http://www.kanazawa21.jp/exhibit/saitou/index_en.html