Katsura Okada, "Shining Flecks II: Forms of Group, Flock, and Swarm"

About

This exhibition of new paintings uses the artist’s recognizable golden pigments and handmade paper installations as a continuation of the artist’s exploration of the abstraction of organic movement.

The many and mesmerizing hand painted dots seem to expand to an overall infinity, hoping to represent nature through the medium of flecked gold paint. Okada’s previous research has focused on understanding collective behavior and large-scale biological patterns, and the forms appearing in her artwork are a direct result of this study of actions and interactions between individual components of a system. The end result looks similar to natural phenomena like ant hills, a flock of birds flying overhead, swarming locust, or
even a busy school of fish.

In addition to new paintings, pieces from Okada’s series Flecks of Shine will also be on view . These pieces ruminate on Okada’s central theme of spiritual revivals in a different way. A new and distinctive technique allows each groove and individual dot to reflect light, amplifying its natural beauty in its various and fascinating shapes.

Katsura Okada was born in Tokyo, Japan, attended Sokei Academy of Fine Art & Design and has a Master of Japanese Calligraphy Arts from the Tokyo Academy of Calligraphy Art. Since 1990, Okada’s work has shown worldwide, including in Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Hungary, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Slovakia, Japan, Canada, Mexico and the United States. Recently, Okada’s work has been exhibited at Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, Hammond Museum in North Salam, New York, Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts, the 57th Venice Biennial in 2017, A.I.R. Gallery in Brooklyn, Black and White Gallery in Brooklyn, Marymount Manhattan College Hewitt Gallery of Art in New York, Karuizawa New Art Museum in Nagano, Japan and the Museum of Arts & Crafts-Itami in Hyogo, Japan. Okada has received first prize/grants from Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, the Shoto Museum of Art in Tokyo and the SoHo Art Competition in New York among others. Publications include Hyperallergic, ARTspeak, Manhattan Arts, NY Arts Magazine, the Yomiuri America newspaper, New York, LUXOS (Milano), Collezioni Sport & Street (Modena), IL NOTIZIARIO DELL’ A.I.A.M. (Rome), Les Editions Arts et Images du Monde (Paris), DART International Magazine (Toronto) and others. For more Information visit katsuraokada-artist.blogspot.com.