Maki Fine Arts is pleased to present "Underground Water Vein" by Akira Takaishi starting Saturday, July 2, 2016. This is Takaishi's first solo show with Maki Fine Arts. Born 1985 in Kanagawa, Japan, Takaishi has been creating implicit paintings showing distorted space with his unique composition utilizing lines with twists and undulations, papers ripped in half, and the sense of perspective found in objects such as stairs and tables.
In "Underground Water Vein," the artist will showcase new paintings in which the canvases have been slices or punches through to emphasize the cross sections and outlines, navigating the borders between image and matter.

"Ruin/imprisonment"
--Keisuke Mori (Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum curator)

The paper is shredded, the canvas punctured, the wooden panels split down its length, and the four sides distorted before severed. Akira Takaishi's recent paintings are overtly destructive. I may even venture to say that while considered paintings, they are also on the brinks of ruin.
On the viewing surface consisting of a white background with densely-packed black lines of ink, motifs of stairs and wood-pattered floors and walls frequently emerge. When the lines with margined outlines agitate the surface at will, the space that appeared to have followed the rules of western art in terms of perspective and chiaroscuro has actually metamorphosed.
His recent tendency of inflicting damage to the supporting medium must also have meaning in generating privileged lines breaking in from the outside as well as equivalent change in quality. While Takaishi's paintings join forces and conspires with images, the shift toward the external in his creative process also insinuates the question of existence, i.e. whether the space between 0 and 1 in front of our eyes actually exists.
When viewing Takaishi's works, our gaze is unable to fight back the captivating force of the lines. Only after drawn deep into the viewing surface, do we realize that our sight is now imprisoned inside a surface that has suffered a significant physical transformation. This continued visual capture is what narrowly allows Takaishi's works to exist as paintings.