Kiyoshi Kuroda: “DISCOLOR” Exhibition

30 Nov 2006 Category: Events & Exhibitions, Illustration, Japan

Famous for his three-dimensional and other works, Kiyoshi Kuroda has so far been known as an energetic pioneer of new means of expression. Surprisingly Kuroda’s exhibition from this Saturday, December 2nd at NANZUKA UNDERGROUND in Shibuya will feature his hand-drawn canvas works instead. I met him while he continued working on a few more unfinished canvases prior to the exhibition. So I went to ask about his third exhibition called “DISCOLOR” that travels back to his basics.

Written by Yuki Harada
Translated by Natsumi Yamane

I heard that hand-drawn canvas works are going to be the main feature of this exhibition. But it’s a very rare thing for you to display your original drawings, isn’t it?

Yes, I think this exhibition will be the first time in Japan for me to do that.

In your works there is this perfect balance of analogue and digital. However - do you think some people might not notice that these original drawings are actually really drawn by hand?

Maybe. That ambiguity is something that I’ve kind of been aware of myself. In some ways I became even more conscious of it since NANZUKA Gallery told me that they wanted to show and convey the analogue side of my work.

What is the main concept of this exhibition?

This time the concept is “Life and Death.” The title of the exhibition, “DISCOLOR”, means “to change color” or “to fade,” and I wanted to draw the process of plants and animals from birth all the way to death. Taking a flower for example, there are different aspects of beauty in every stage of its life cycle – from a bud that blossoms into a flower, then wilting and dying. Other people might not see it this way. But by expressing these things that have caught my attention, I hope to find some people who identify with that somehow.

Recently you have been more involved with body painting, photography and three-dimensional work. That’s why I thought this exhibition would be about these subjects mainly. What made you go back to drawings?

Well, I enjoyed the excitement of exploring new means of expression. But regardless of the medium you choose, the most important subject in the end is how to display your line drawings best. In this exhibition I placed more emphasis on thoroughly communicating the motifs that attracted me. I did this with a tight focus on the subject, rather than on the diversity of the medium. Then again, an exhibition should be an occasion for the artist to bring attention to his or her new projects. So this exhibition includes two photography works on which I focused with all of those elements.

Did you discover anything new in the process of drawing directly on the canvas?

It was a fresh experience to check the quality of the hand-drawn original while I still kept drawing, because it’s so completely different from the checks done on digital data through a computer display. Actually, I haven’t had many opportunities to handle such tasks since I became an illustrator – as there are more things you pay attention to in order to show the details that are hard to convey on paper medium. Like for example the stereoscopic look of the ink and the spots where the drawing stretches out to the corner of the canvas….

Can you tell me a little bit more about the talk show you are going to stage with paper cut-out artist Risa Fukui during the coming exhibition?

We actually studied at the same university. That’s why I knew her works from back then. Although my medium is line drawing and hers is paper cut-out, I see many connections in the way we both express plants and animals in black. And the fact that we both pick up a more realistic and grotesque side of the animals.

Thank you very much for your time, and I’ll be looking forward to your exhibition and talk show!

KIYOSHI KURODA SOLO EXHIBITION “DISCOLOR”
The Exhibition will be on from December 2nd (Sat) to December 29th (Fri) at NANZUKA UNDERGROUND in Shibuya, Tokyo. The talk show with Risa Fukui will be on December 9th (Sat) at 7:00 pm at the same venue. In the meantime, the first collection of Kiyoshi Kuroda’s works “Uncolored 1” will also be published by Yudachi.net during this exhibition.

24 Comments

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2. very cool art…very cool
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   Posted by: Mustashrik on December 1st, 2006 at 2:45 am

3. Wow!
   Cool

   Posted by: María on December 1st, 2006 at 4:31 am

4. [...] PingMag has a new piece on the DISCOLOR exhibition held by Kiyoshi Kuroda who is known for the use of combining analogue and digital techniques in his works. His exhibition will be held from December 2nd to the 29th at Nanzuka Underground in Shibuya, Tokyo. The theme of the exhibition is “Life and Death”, where he looks to show the process of plants and animals from birth to death. For all those in Tokyo during December, go ahead and check out the exhibit. Read the interview and get more info on the talented artist at PingMag. [...]

   Posted by: Kiyoshi Kuroda - DISCOLOR Exhibition « SPEAKEASY on December 1st, 2006 at 6:44 am

5. excellent! the different between life and death lies in color.

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6. […]Ping Magazine has a new interview with Japanese illustrator/artist Kiyoshi Kuroda. Kuroda has had a number of solo and group shows in Tokyo in the last few years and currently has a solo show going on at Nanzuka Underground, near Shibuya Station. I had a chance to check out the Nanzuka Kiyoshi Kuroda show recently… […]

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