Kei Imazu participates in WE PAINT! (2022), an exhibition on the effervescence of painting in contemporary art that will take place from 24 March - 24 April 2022 at the Palais des Études des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France, under the independent curatorship of Cristiano Raimondi, who is also responsible for the scenography.
This exhibition programmed by the Beaux-Arts de Paris presents this state of contemporary painting through 33 French and foreign artists selected over the last 10 years by the Jean-François Prat Prize, in a scenography specifically created for this occasion in the heart of the emblematic glass courtyard of the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris.
Starting with the fact that painting has a ways existed, we must bear in mind that since birth of the avant-gardes, and now more generally, since the birth of abstraction, the art institutions, the critics, the market and the public have, at different times in history, dictated the high and low periods for this age-old practice.
New technologies and post-war industrialization raised doubts about the role of painting. Enthusiasm for the "novelties" of the moment saw many artists abandon painting and formulate new artistic movements based on the use of innovative materials and technologies. These last forty years have witnessed a kind of competition between different artistic movements, but the artists never stopped painting and, today, the contemporary digital universe has become a natural medium of painterly creation.
Starting with the fact that painting has a ways existed, we must bear in mind that since birth of the avant-gardes, and now more generally, since the birth of abstraction, the art institutions, the critics, the market and the public have, at different times in history, dictated the high and low periods for this age-old practice.
New technologies and post-war industrialization raised doubts about the role of painting. Enthusiasm for the "novelties" of the moment saw many artists abandon painting and formulate new artistic movements based on the use of innovative materials and technologies. These last forty years have witnessed a kind of competition between different artistic movements, but the artists never stopped painting and, today, the contemporary digital universe has become a natural medium of painterly creation.
Artist
Born 1980, Yamaguchi, Japan
Lives and works in Bandung, Indonesia
Kei Imazu’s painting practice takes root in the peculiar conditions of the contemporary Internet age, where the visual torrent of information becomes a repository to distort and reassemble. These resulting 3D-renderings and digital sketches, by-products of a saturated image world, serve as sketches for her oil paintings. This approach is shaped by the artist’s archaeological impulse and her interest in the recovery and reconstruction of human lifeworlds from material cultures; since moving to Indonesia in 2018, Imazu’s works have come to address the country’s colonial histories as well as the multiple stories and folklores shared across the archipelago, which often contain parallel themes to global mythological narratives. Recently, Imazu’s practice has expanded to include painted sculptures and installations as sites of recovery and reconstruction, where traces of historical and mythical narratives are bound into new layers of understanding and kinship.
Imazu has held several solo exhibitions including Art Basel Paris: Stratum Vein with ROH at Grand Palais, Paris, France (2024); unearth at ROH, Jakarta, Indonesia (2023); Sowed Them to the Earth at Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco, USA (2023); Mapping the Land/Body/Stories of its Past at ANOMALY, Tokyo, Japan (2021); Anda disini / You are here at Museum Haus Kasuya, Kanagawa, Japan (2019); Measuring Invisible Distance at Yamamoto Gendai, Tokyo, Japan (2018); and Overgrown at ROH Projects, Jakarta, Indonesia (2018). Her group exhibitions include Bangkok Art Biennale: Nurture Gaia at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, Bangkok, Thailand (2024); Frieze Seoul, COEX Convention & Exhibition Center, Seoul, South Korea (2022); WAGIWAGI at documenta fifteen, Hübner areal, Kassel, Germany (2022); Declaring Distance: Bandung — Leiden at Selasar Sunaryo Art Space, Bandung, Indonesia (2022); AAAAHHH!!! Paris Internationale in Paris, France (2018), all featuring her collaborative work with Bagus Pandega; The 7th Changwon Sculpture Biennale: silent apple in Changwon, South Korea (2024); Let’s See at ArtSpace @ HeluTrans, Singapore (2024); 1 at ROH, Jakarta, Indonesia (2022); We Paint! at Palais de Beaux-Arts, Paris, France (2022), Last Words at ROH, Jakarta, Indonesia (2021); We Are Here at Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco, USA (2021); Tiger Orchid at Art Basel OVR: Miami Beach, ROH Projects (2020); Roppongi Crossing: Connexion at Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan (2019); Meet the Collection - 30th Anniversary of the Yokohama Museum of Art at Yokohama Museum of Art, Kanagawa, Japan (2019); and Taming Y/Our Passion at Aichi Triennale, Nagoya, Japan (2019); Kei Imazu is the finalist of Prix Jean-François Prat in 2020. Imazu’s works are part of the public collections of various institutions in Japan, among them are MUSEUM HAUS KASUYA in Kanagawa as well as Takahashi Ryutaro Collection, Taguchi Art Collection, and OKETA COLLECTION in Tokyo. Her works are also part of the public collections of San San Jose Museum of Art, California, U.S.A. and X Museum, Beijing, China. Kei Imazu will present her first mid-career survey in the forthcoming solo exhibition Tanah Air at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan (2025).
View ArtistCopyright belongs to The Artist
Photography and text by of Jean-François Prat Foundation
Courtesy of The Artist, Jean-François Prat Foundation, and ROH