TOSHIYUKI KONISHI
Konishi was born in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan in 1980. He completed his postgraduate studies from the Department of Painting at Musashino Art University in 2007. His works are referenced to snapshots of people in his everyday life. While a portrait should reveal its tangible, figurative elements at first glance, yet the identities are obscure as Konishi depicts with bold, dynamic brushstrokes which sweeps the details away. Painting inevitably reflects the artist’s gesture and movements, and Konishi’s brushstrokes have a certain degree of fixed form that emphasizes their physicality. In general, facial expressions have been highly focused in portraits. The artist excessively simplified the eyes, nose, mouth, etc., and rejected all attributes such as race, gender or age. According to Roland Barthes’ theory of photography, photographs are “the thing (reality) that has been there”. With his eyes and hands, Konishi once again confronts the “the thing (reality) that has been there” - familiar faces of the past which appeared in his snapshots. Konishi has actively participated in exhibitions including “Collection – Asian Landscapes” (21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, 2018), “Yokohama Triennale 2017: “Islands, Constellations & Galapagos”, “Nostalgia and Fantasy: Imagination and Its Origins in Contemporary Art”, National Museum of Art (Osaka, 2014), “The Way of Painting”, Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery (2014) etc. His works are in key public collections such as 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art (Kanazawa, Japan), National Museum of Art (Osaka, Japan), Takamatsu Art Museum (Kagawa, Japan), in Japan and abroad.