Kei Imazu: Sowed Them to the Earth
Jessica Silverman is pleased to announce Kei Imazu’s Sowed Them to the Earth, the artist’s first solo exhibition with the gallery and her first in the United States, running from July 27 to September 9, 2023. Debuting eleven new oil paintings and two wire sculptures, Imazu’s point of departure for this exhibition is the myth of the goddess Hainuwele, whose death propagated root crops on Seram Island in Indonesia. Her fantastical paintings connect the region’s ecology to its cultural and colonial histories using gestural mark-making and hyperreal depictions of the body, plants, geological maps and ancestral wooden sculptures. Imazu’s practice is world-building, and as a mother herself, celebrates the maternal origin for all living beings.
Born in Yamaguchi, Japan in 1980 and educated at the Tama Art University in Tokyo, Imazu’s painting practice begins on her computer. Using images she takes herself or finds online, the artist creates 3D renderings of objects and digitally collages them to serve as sketches for her paintings. Translating her tableaus into oil paintings, Imazu’s shadow and tonality mimic stage lighting, while her vivid color and linework capture a kind of technological realism.