KAORU USUKUBO

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On what rules is our world based? And what stories with what meaning are we living in?

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Our creative act in our ateliers originates in something like a fragment of reality that our eyes capture, and eventually ‘visualizes’ intentional things and, events resulting from the conspiracy between accidental chance and action. It can be also called an act of translating a visually recognizable subject, and ‘object (Gegenstand)’ that exists beyond it, into a painting.

The fact loses its life the moment we try to perceive it as an integrated form. When we attempt to grasp the ‘sekai’(world) , it’s the fragmented time and our own senses as bystanders that give us clues. For us, painting is like a pedestal to set them. In our attempt to grasp the ‘sekai’ (world) and the object ( Gegenstand), the moment when our senses encounter something that strikes us is real is quite ephemeral. During the time we are engaged at the canvas, unintended misreading may occur which cannot occur intentionally. This painting space where intension and unintended translation coexist reminds us once again that there might be another  unexpected ‘sekai’. 

Fateful encounters of gaining knowledge, dreaming, humans overcoming the menace of nature, and the nature recovering humans again. Our life and living represent that each person creates his/her respective reality. Today, painting is still at its developmental stage as a means to satisfy the fundamental impulses of the mankind, and as an ever-faster recording medium for what happens in the world from the past to the present. 

Paintings have ‘frames.’ And the fact that our perception is limited also tells us that we are inhabitants inside the ‘frame.’ Our quest is nothing but to keep on look at this ‘sekai’ inside this tiny frame, using the clues of the things that contain ‘ambivalence.’

 

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BIOGRAFY

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Born in JAPAN
2004   BFA, Painting, Tokyo Zokei University
2007   MFA, Painting, Tokyo University of the Arts
2010   Doctoral Degree (PHD) in Oil Painting ,Tokyo University of the Arts

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Solo Exhibitions
 

2020    “ Kaoru Usukubo and Daisuke Ohba – Enlil and Enki,” LOOCK, Berlin

2018　“An experiment based on an accidental,” taimatz, Tokyo

2017　“the Constellations,” taimatz, Tokyo

2012    “ Crystal Voyage,” Kunstverein Friedrichshafen,

2011    “crystal moments,” LOOCK, Berlin “Brightness falls from the Air ,” taimatz, Tokyo

2010　“Part and the whole,” Wohnmaschine, Berlin

2008    “NEXT 2008,”〔Art Fair／Solo Exhibition at TARO NASU booth〕Chicago
　　　 “UP logist,” Wohnmaschine, Berlin
2007    “Wandering Season,” TARO NASU, Tokyo

 

Group Exhibitons

2019  “WOMAN-Copper and willow-,”MA2 Gallery, Tokyo

           “U40,” Obayashi collection, Tokyo

2017  “KAKEGAWA CHAENNALE,”Kakegawa Castle ,Kakegawa

           “Portrait expression,”The Sato Museum of Art, Tokyo

2016  “The new place that there is not anywhere,” SEIBU Shibuya, Tokyo

           “Kaoru Usukubo,Hannes Beckmann ,”LOOCK Galerie, Berlin

2015   “Wabi Sabi Shima」Thalie Art Foundation,” Brussel

      　“CSP3- Picture and Sculpture,” Kuwasawa Design School , Tokyo

2014 “@IOSSELLIANI T-02-IOS　pratique vol.0,”IOSSELLIANI, Tokyo

2013  “MINIMAL/POSTO MINIMAL The contemporary Japanese Art from 1970s ,”Utsunomiya Museum of                Art,Utsunomiyab

            “The 9th formative artist exhibition ,” Tokyo ZOKEI University Museum, Tokyo

2012   “The 21th Annual Scholarship Recipients Art Exhibition,” Special participant, The Sato Museum of                 Art, Tokyo

2011    “Tokyo FRONTLINE,”Arts Chiyoda 3331,Tokyo

             “Yokohama Triennale 2011 OUR MAGIC HOUR,” Yokohama Museum of Art,Yokohama

             “The 20th Annual Scholarship Recipients Art Exhibition,” Special participant, The Sato Museum of                 Art, Tokyo

2010    “The Vision of Contemporary Art 2010,” The Ueno no mori Museum of Art, Toky

　         “camaboko,” Tokyo Zokei University, Tokyo

2008    “Opening Exhibition Ⅱ,” TARO NASU, Tokyo
　　     “NETWORK PROJECT JAPAN,” Inter Alia Art Company, Seoul
　　     “The 17th Annual Scholarship Recipients Art Exhibition,”The Sato Museum of Art, Tokyo

　         “only one,” MOT/ARTS, Taipei
　　　“Giovane Seta ’09,” ONWARD GALLERY Nihonbashi, Tokyo

2007    “Art Award Tokyo Marunouchi 2007,” Gyoko-dori Underground Gallery, Tokyo
2005　“Japan and South Korea Contemporary Painting Exhibition: Nature and I,”
　　     Gallery Ho, Seoul/ Art Center MAHNO, Anseong, South Korea
　　　 “HOPE: South Korea-Japan Art Exchange Exhibition,”
　　      South Korea to Japan Embassy South Korea Cultural Exchange Gallery, Tokyo
 

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Awards
2004　ZOKEI Prize at “Graduation Exhibition of Tokyo Zokei University:    

            ZOKEI-ten,” Tokyo Zokei University, Tokyo
2007　Teikyo University Purchase Prize at “Completion Exhibition of M.A.

            Course of Tokyo University of the Arts,”　　　　

             The University Art Museum - Tokyo University of the Arts, Tokyo

 

 

2007  Teikyo University, Yamanashi
2010  The nursing home GREEN, Akita

2011  The Sato Museum of Art, Tokyo