Maki Fine Arts is pleased to present Reverse/Rebirth, a solo show by Shu Ikeda, starting Saturday, January 7, 2017.

Born 1979 in Hiroshima, Japan, Ikeda has been producing works that traverse between painting and photography by cutting out photographs to create unique shapes and voids. Past exhibitions include Why not live for Art? II - 9 collectors reveal their treasures (Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery 2013).

In his fourth solo show with Maki Fine Arts, Ikeda will showcase eight new works. His recent works reveal how his techniques have evolved using collage work in addition to his cut-out techniques. By collecting the cut-outs taken from photographs and reconfiguring them on a surface, he is able to create imaginary landscapes. In one of his new works "Mebius Loop," parts of a photograph capturing a construction site in Toyosu--an area in Tokyo--are cut out, then imaginary structures are built on the upper section of the work, in effect visualizing the scrap-and-build development taking place in Tokyo on a daily basis.

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Yoshiro Noda
(Critic of representational culture,
Research assistant at Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties)

What is the true description of Ikeda's works? At times, they are cut-outs. Other times, they are paste work. In truth, there is no need to introduce an air of suspense, because, from the onset, the photograph's base layer has always been exposed in front of us. Not only is the technique itself a picture, but the material is also a picture. Hence, in his works, a link between the picture's dismantlement and construction emerges as a separate picture.

In his piece using plant motifs, for example, the overall image is generated using the vegetation in the photo, the cut-out shapes of flowers and leaves, and, in some cases, the background shadows cast on the walls from those shapes. With actual scenery cut out from the photograph, even more shapes are cut out, either in keeping with the shapes or by improvising. Of course, the diversity in the images generated from one artist's cut-out method can also suggests uniformity. Yet, by incorporating various ways of rearranging and combining them, Ikeda has been consistent in discovering new links.

Currently, Ikeda seems to be intrigued by the cycles found in urban cities. The characteristics of the motifs and the characteristics of the technique overlap on the viewing surface quite nicely. His series depicting nature in urban cities is at its finest, recreating reality through nature of the unnatural.