Maki Fine Arts is pleased to present Madame Curie Chronology, a solo show by Maki Katayama, starting Saturday, January 9, 2016.
Madame Curie Chronology marks Katayama's first solo exhibition at Maki Fine Arts. Born in 1982, Katayama has mainly produced paintings with abstract images, using specific historical figures as motif. In her creative process, the artist uses a unique color chart controlled by number and color combinations, finds birth and death dates of the person chosen for the theme along with the recorded weather of the dates, and replaces the numerical values into colors to produce paintings.
In Madame Curie Chronology, Katayama will showcase many new pieces from her "Birthday and Death Anniversary" series with Madame Curie and her associates as motif, "Collision" series where two canvas drawings come together, along with additional drawings.

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Kenjiro Hosaka (principal researcher, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo)

Paintings do not exist to retain evidence of a painter's body. Reasons do not exist. It should not be permissible for that tension-filled magical place to be collected for the purpose of oneself; it simply exists.
In a sense, paintings have an ethical existence. Realizing this, Maki Katayama, in her unique way, has implemented what some may consider a nonsensical "system" in an attempt to preserve such space or perhaps to identify such characteristics.
For example, the artist may take multiple paintings and literally collide them into one. She may also select her colors based on someone's birthday and weather. Still more, she may superimpose lines and colors based on the life of a stranger she's never met before.
The product of her "system" seems to frequently run off course from what is considered "good painting." It is certainly not an easy path. Yet, the reason Katayama is able to pursue this route is due to her ability to convert the "others"--those we would normally never have a chance to meet or those too ancient for us to even glimpse their likeness--into something tangible that can be seen, touched, and smelled. There lies something, something we can perhaps call "love of paintings".
Those who have recognized that love, in other words, the painters, can then return the favor by offering their love, love in such abundance that others may perceive it to be tinged with insanity or absurdity. But above all, Katayama's love--permeating with desire to visualize seemingly intangible strangers all at once--runs deepest.