Tat Ito
It is no secret that we at AM are big fans of the general program that the Joshua Liner Gallery has put together for 2010. Even so, the two exhibitions that the gallery opened last Friday – “From Kojiki to Modern Heroism,” the two-person show featuring Tat Ito and Hiro Kurata, and “Refuge,” Tristram Lansdowne’s (interviewed) solo show – have been particular highlights we have been eagerly awaiting. And rightly so, as all three young artists brought strong collections of new works, impressing everyone in attendance.
Ito’s paintings immediately grabbed viewers with eye-popping color compositions of metallic leafing, camouflage and polka dots, drawing them in to experience worlds inhabited by the likes of uniquely rendered zombies and log-rollers. Kurata presented expressive works filled with baseball and sumo imagery symbolic of East and West, struggle and competition; his use of tatami fabric to frame the paintings added texture, pattern and a sense of traditionalism. Lansdowne filled the second gallery with his beautifully subtle large-scale watercolors depicting urban architecture with subterranean views of imaginative structures.
See all the images from the openings, after the jump.
Hiro Kurata
Tristram Lansdowne
