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 utilizes everyday contemporary internet environment in collecting all sorts of artworks and objects that exist in and beyond the form of an image. After thoroughly going through her great volume of collected data, she distorts, reconstructs, and sketches them digitally. With the sketch she has created, Imazu traces it onto the canvas using oil paint, a method she currently employs to create her artworks.
Imazu has several solo exhibitions including 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, Museum Haus Kasuya, Kanagawa, Japan (2019); Measuring Invisible Distance,Yamamoto Gendai, Tokyo, Japan (2018); and Overgrown, ROH Projects,Jakarta, Indonesia (2018). Her group exhibitions include Frieze Seoul, COEX Mall, Seoul, South Korea (2022); WAGIWAGI at documenta fifteen,Hübnerareal, Kassel, Germany (2022); Declaring Distance: Bandung — Leiden, Selasar Sunaryo Art Space, Bandung, Indonesia (2022); AAAAHHH!!! Paris Internationale, Paris, France (2018) – all featuring her collaborative work with Bagus Pandega; 1, ROH, Jakarta, Indonesia (2022); We Paint!, Palais de Beaux-Arts, Paris, France (2022); Last Words, ROH, Jakarta, Indonesia (2021); We Are Here, Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco, USA (2021); Tiger Orchid, Art Basel OVR: Miami Beach (2020); Roppongi Crossing: Connexion, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan (2019); Meet the Collection - 30th Anniversary of the Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama Museum of Art, Kanagawa, Japan (2019), and Taming Y/Our Passion, Aichi Triennale, Nagoya, Japan (2019), among others. Kei Imazu is the finalist of Prix Jean-François Prat in 2020.
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