TEZUKAYAMA GALLERY is pleased to announce Takuro Sugiyama’s first solo exhibition, “Paguroidea,” starting on September 20.

Sugiyama was born in 1983 in Chiba Prefecture and is currently based in Hyogo Prefecture.

He mainly exhibited his works in the Kansai area, including solo exhibitions at Godaisan Chikurinji Temple (Kochi Prefecture) and ASYL (Osaka Prefecture). Sugiyama creates geometric images by rigorously and systematically repeating and reconstructing the minimal elements of painting, such as lines and color fields. He then precisely paints these images onto canvas using acrylic paint, resulting in artworks that have an optical illusion-like visual effect.

What is particularly noteworthy is that Sugiyama consciously avoids introducing arbitrary elements or ambiguous decision-making during the creation of these images. By incorporating mechanical processes such as repetitive actions based on rules and the algorithmic generation of images, Sugiyama seeks to gain an objective perspective, which allows him to derive motifs as a means of expression. This attitude reflects an attempt to relativize the relationship and connection between the work and the artist.

Through this rational process, Sugiyama creates a balanced tension between opposing perspectives, such as subject and object. By repeatedly selecting from the choices that arise, he attempts to “purify the image,” extracting only the formal and visual elements. At the same time, this process enables the work to contain the “countless possibilities (choices)” that were not selected behind the emerging images, suggesting to the viewer that the artwork exists in an ambivalent mutual relationship where diverse perspectives and thoughts coexist.

[Artist Statement]

If there is such a thing as intention, I had vaguely thought it resided somewhere within the body.

However, that somehow doesn’t seem to make sense.

Perhaps intention also resides in relationships and places,

and since we have no way to observe it,

we might just be assuming it exists somewhere within the body.

Since around spring, I have been painting in preparation for this exhibition.

I work at home, so the paintings are always present, like part of the scenery, whether I’m eating or about to go to bed.

This feels somehow comforting. It’s the unique comfort of a living space.

However, there is also a certain quality that only an exhibition space can provide—perhaps it is the purity of the act of viewing.

The artworks are displayed on white walls without windows, with the temperature and humidity kept constant and all noise minimized.

It feels as if the brain and eyes are floating in space, detached from the body.

This is an act of viewing with as little bodily sensation as possible.

PAGUROIDEA is the scientific name for hermit crabs.

The shell is a place.

Living in a shell is a relationship.

The hermit crab represents the body.

When there are three surfaces, each with a different brightness, it creates a sense of three-dimensionality.

Although this is a highly simplified version of what we see in reality, I find this way of painting incredibly fascinating.

Through the landscapes depicted in the paintings, I imagine the various things one might feel.