Hiroaki Konaka

Biography:

Born in Osaka, Japan in 1993.

2010 Graduated from Kyoto Art Senior High School, Painting Course.

2014 Graduated from Kyoto University of the Arts, Department of Fine and Applied Arts, Japanese Painting Course.

 

Exhibition:

2013

“Painting Exhibition-Japanese Painting Laboratory Selected New Artist Exhibition vol.10-” Rissei Elementary School (Kyoto)

 

“World Painting Award 2013” Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum (Tokyo)

“GEISAI # 19” Tokyo Metropolitan Industry and Trade Center Taitokan (Tokyo)

“HANARART Koa 2013” Gunzan Castle Town Area (Nara)

 

2014

“Kyoto University of the Arts Graduation Exhibition” Kyoto University of the Arts (Kyoto)

 

2015

“ULTRA AWARD 2015 Post Internet Art-New Materiality, Mediaity”

 

2016

ULTRA x ANTEROOM exhibition 2016」 HOTEL ANTEROOM KYOTO ( Kyoto)

https://hotel-anteroom.com/exhibition_cat/804/

 

My Artist statement:

Painting has been an output to convey my feelings since I was little. I am still cherishing the creative activities. I have a lot more ways and tools to express my feelings as I got older, but I feel complete when I am thinking about the creations.

 

Painting might not be the most popular way when it comes to visual arts. I feel that we have been numbed with too many images.

 

I use metal leaf and traditional dye ink to create my paintings. Those traditional painting materials change colors over the years and age well.

 

My process is rebuilding on the canvas while taking randomness and phenomenon the iconography become more of the visual experience rather than just the information.

 

The art pieces I create get affected by the light and the space and they become an optical phenomenon that is visible but unreachable. Then, they abstract the facts of the image.

 

When confronting such a visual experience, I am creating a work that appeals to the senses so that the viewer is immersed in the flashback scene.

 

In my early works, I used photographic techniques and natural materials for the changes of things.

 

By combining them, I’m developing the “Transmaterial” series as an interface that connects sensuously, and I’m trying to create a perceptual experience with the themes of replication and originality, artificial and nature, and the relationship between the material and immaterial.

 

My message for this exhibition:

 

I use the silver metal leaf and traditional dye ink for my painting, and they exist in the relaxation and change daily with light and time. It changes daily with light and time and exists while moving around.

 

This is my first group exhibition in NYC. My paintings for this exhibition are included the ones I created in Japan in 2019 and the one I recently created since I moved to NYC last month.

 

From my representational art of the birds and flowers to the works with the theme of abstract light energy, please enjoy the encounter and time in this space at this exhibition.