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K. KOBAYASHI

I REMEMBER WHEN...
 

September 9 - October 16, 2021

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Lola Shepard is pleased to announce I REMEMBER WHEN…, an online solo exhibition featuring works on paper by emerging Japanese artist K. KOBAYASHI. This is Kobayashi’s first solo exhibition in New York City. The online presentation will be highlighted on the website from September 9 - October 16, 2021.

 

I REMEMBER WHEN… features 15 works on paper created this year by K. Kobayashi. Kobayashi’s painting style merges aspects of Color Field painting and abstract expressionism with Shodo, an artistic form of Japanese calligraphy writing. Employing acrylic, graphite, and ink, the densely packed, stirring compositions incorporate gestural sweeps of color with the swooping, fluid lines of the calligraphic script. 

 

Guided by her memories, Kobayashi endeavors to preserve the quintessence of her experiences onto paper. Working instinctively, the artist explores the range of possibilities offered by her paints. Straddling between a color palette of vibrant hues from cobalt blue and bumblebee yellow to the more subdued tones of black and grey, the compact imagery appears frenzied and unconstrained. Yet these multi-layered, acrylic compositions are confined within a boxed-in area, accentuating the separation between paint and ground. 

 

Many of the works integrate her unique Shodo marks, applied in a curvilinear fashion. By inscribing her work with these pictorial scripts, the artist attempts to communicate with the viewer. Says Kobayashi “I think that leaving marks is a primitive instinct as a human being. Leaving marks is evidence of our existence. When we leave this world, the marks are still here. It makes me feel a little secure to think that something is going to be here a bit longer than me when I am gone.”

 

The painting Small World beautifully illustrates the unruly motion and personalized curviform mark-making that has become a signature of her artistic practice. Building the surface and layering paint over paint, Kobayashi applies broad swaths of acrylic paint in muted hues of grey and blue with a splash of yellow. She then overlays the work with the free-form Shodo marks in black, rendering an image that conveys emotional complexity and restlessness.

 

Kobayashi resurrects and reshapes her memories into her work and each title provides a subtle clue to that indefinable, ephemeral state of the ‘remembrance of things past’. Kobayashi states that her artwork is a way “to capture the essence of my memories on surfaces. Often my memories and feelings are elusive. They are all mixed up, and confusing at times. By trying to convey the essence of these emotions and feelings on surfaces, I hope to find someone else who can relate to my experiences.”

 

K. Kobayashi was born in Nagoya, Japan and grew up in Tokyo. She holds a Master’s degree in Social Work from the University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL and a Bachelor of Arts from Queens College, CUNY, New York City, NY and has been included in several group exhibitions at Queens College. This is Kobayashi’s first solo exhibition with Lola Shepard. 

An Online Exhibition presented by LolaShepard.com 

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