DAICHI TAKAGI

Artist bio

Hundredth Monkey
September 26 - October 25, 2015
Grand opening party: Saturday, September 26, 6-8 pm

DAICHI TAKAGI　void　2015, oil on canvas, 100×100 cm

KAYOKOYUKI is pleased to announce the solo exhibition with Daichi Takagi. Takagi was born in 1982 in Gifu, Japan.

Recently, Takagi presented his work in "The Way of Painting" at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, "DAI CHU SHOW" recent abstract" at Fuchu art museum citizen's gallery and LOOPHOLE, "SLASH/08 Gimme something sweet that is everlasting curated by KAYOKOYUKI" at waitingroom, "SSS-expand painting" at MISAKO & ROSEN.http://daichitakagi.com/

Motifs abruptly trimmed away, a painted surface which is clearly divided, sharp colors collocated as if refusing an easy association of images, gradation techniques suggestive of orthodox still life paintings―these elements are organized on a support surface and attract a viewer’s attention, creating a sensation similar to “enigma,” “savageness,” and “mysteriousness.”

Daichi Takagi creates paintings in which various tricks are hidden in any elements from lines and planes, shapes, selection of colors, to textures where traces of brushstrokes are retained, in order to correlate his paintings with his surrounding circumstances.

The exhibition title, “Hundredth Monkey,” derives from a phenomenon called the hundredth monkey effect, a fictive story created by a biologist, Lawrence Blair. It is a paranormal phenomenon where once a critical number of monkeys exhibit a new behavior, the behavior is claimed to spread rapidly from one group to other distant groups of the same species. Takagi describes that this kind of synchronicity can also be observed in the world of painting and “resemblance to existing artworks” is an unavoidable destiny of painters as far as tools and methodologies are limited to a certain extent. Besides, he positively accepts the possibilities of a human’s intrinsic sensation and imagination producing similar thoughts or creations, and of people who share the same paradigm sympathizing with each other. While confronting the historical transition of painting, Takagi strives to create his ideal painting through exploration of the innate possibilities of painting in order to express and correlate issues outside painting (his character, surroundings, etc.) with the space of a painting.