Early Spring - Early Summer

ROH is pleased to present Early Spring - Early Summer, Trevor Shimizu's (b. 1978, California, U.S.A.) first solo exhibition with the gallery.

Recent Trevor Shimizu landscapes, painted superimpositions of season layered upon season, directly reference an unrealized work Double Exposure (1995-1996) by American artist Dan Graham. In Graham’s piece, a semi-transparent photographic image of the very same landscape in which one of his signature two-way-mirror pavilions was to be sited, was to be incorporated into the wall of the pavilion itself – thus further complicating a viewer’s perception of themselves in relation to the work and the surrounding landscape as the seasons changed. In keeping with the semi-autobiographical nature of Shimizu’s practice, the related double-landscape paintings offer both a visual record of the layering and passing of time as well as a sort of psychological self-portrait.

The present exhibition marks a re-emergence of the foregrounding of unskilled elements in Shimizu’s practice that is more circular, enriching his now familiar beautiful landscapes with a new degree of complexity. There are two bodies of work in the gallery; the serial group of six mid-sized Early Spring - Early Summer paintings as well as the monumental Early Spring - Early Summer (Compilation). Concerned with perceptual change, each painting in the group of six is marked with a haphazardly painted monochromatic composition in pearlescent blue, violet, red, green or teal; these streaks only visible under certain lighting conditions.

Complimentarily, the single, monumentally scaled Early Spring - Early Summer (Compilation) elucidates that even the most layered of Shimizu’s compositions is, in essence, a sketch. In this painting the full breadth of his practice is emphasized – with relatively reduced mark making accentuating the abstract quality of his landscapes while articulating the boldness of his position.

Early Spring - Early Summer is accompanied by a text from Jeffrey Rosen, co-director of the Tokyo gallery Misako & Rosen and long-time collaborator of Shimizu’s. The exhibition is open by invitation on 10 August 2024 and to the public from 14 August 2024 to 8 September 2024. The gallery will be closed on Monday, Tuesday, and public holidays. Follow the gallery’s Instagram account @rohprojects or reach out to [email protected] for further updates on operational hours and public program announcements.

B. 1978, California, USA

Lives and works in New York, USA

Trevor Shimizu’s practice is characterized by an impulsion; it’s about quickly executing ideas that come to him in the most natural way possible. This impulsivity has taken the form of autobiographical and sardonic works with an anti-painting bent, performances, or video paintings produced with lo-fi and off-the-shelf digital technologies at hand. The latter speaks to his dialogue with an earlier generation of video artists in New York, whose strategies he was directly exposed to during his tenure as a technical director at Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI). For the past five years, his interest in time-based media has informed a series of landscape paintings in which he reflects on the passing of time in his new situation in the Hudson River and its oscillations in light and scape.

With each work painted from memory, Shimizu’s landscapes evoke contrast between the limitations of human recollection with the limitlessness of material possibility. Thin layers of colour present themselves with ambition through vast, expressive strokes that materialize representations of objects found in memory that still harbor potential to evolve into future existences. His gauzy images of flowers and leaves are the material reproduction of an imagination that leaves room to toy with an idea of a reality long gone. His technique aptly follows suit; his is an ambidextrous approach influenced by the performativity of abstract expressionism, coinciding with the choreographic and conceptual elements of the post-war period.

Selected solo exhibitions include 2007-2017 at Christine Mayer, Munich, Germany (2024); Past/Future at Modern Art, London, United Kingdom (2024); Cycles at 47 Canal, New York, USA (2023); Ying-Yang at La Maison de Rendez-Vous, Brussels, Belgium (2022); Trevor Shimizu: Performance Artist, ICA Philadelphia at Kunsthalle, Lisbon, Portugal (2019); Trevor Shimizu at Galerie Christine Mayer, Munich, Germany (2017); and Gas at Misako & Rosen, Tokyo, Japan (2015). Group exhibitions include Toward the Celestial: ICA Miami’s Collection at 10 Years at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, USA (2024); The Moth and the Thunderclap at Stuart Shave Modern Art, London, UK (2023); Minimalism-Maximalism-Mechanissmmm at Art Sonje Center, Seoul, South Korea (2022); Crumple at Vin Vin Gallery, Vienna (2020); Condo Shanghai 2019 at AIKE, Shanghai, China (2019); Downtown Painting, presented by Alex Katz at Peter Freeman Inc., New York (2019); Tiger-Poems and Songs for Hurricanes at Travesía Cuatro at Guadalajara, Mexico (2018); Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA (2014); New Western Art at Halele Timco, Temeswar, Romania (2013); The First Show, II: David Berezin, Michael Guidetti, Trevor Shimizu at Jancar Jones Gallery, Los Angeles, California, USA (2011); and Here’s Why Patterns at Misako & Rosen, Tokyo, Japan (2008). His work is part of the public collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, the K11 Art Foundation, Hong Kong, and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, Florida, amongst others.