BIGEI

Shingo Mori (b. 1937) was born in Taketoyo, Chita District, Aichi Prefecture. Since being selected for the 13th Kodo Exhibition in 1958, he has exhibited primarily through the Kodo Bijutsu Kyokai (Action Art Association). He has continued to present his works energetically, and in 2014 a retrospective exhibition was held at the Fujii Tatsukichi Museum of Contemporary Art in Hekinan City.

This exhibition, Mori’s first at SHUMOKU GALLERY, features both drawings from the 1960s and new works created between 2015 and 2016.

Though the works span over 50 years, they share a consistent thematic core: Mori’s sharp sensibility in capturing space. He has long pursued this theme throughout his artistic practice.

Mori describes being haunted by the mysterious phenomenon of the kamaitachi—a sudden vacuum in the air that slices through the skin—something that may or may not exist in reality. This elusive image remains lodged in his mind as he continues to paint. Among the artists of the Kodo Bijutsu Kyokai who explored abstract expression in the Kansai and Chubu regions from the 1950s onward, Mori held a particularly vital position. His early works, produced in his twenties, have rarely been shown, yet they display a strikingly avant-garde sensibility.

In 2016, at the age of 78, Mori launched his latest series, Kamaitachi, in which he redoubles his passionate pursuit of capturing space through painting—an attempt to make a bold statement in contemporary two-dimensional expression.

Also featured in the exhibition is a collaborative work originally published as a seven-part correspondence project in 2010 titled Haikuga Okan (The Dialogue of Haiku and Painting) in the art paper Chinetsu no Arano Shinbun. The project was a visual and poetic exchange between haiku poet Shunjitsu Baba (b. 1932) and Shingo Mori, curated by Ayako Takahashi. For this exhibition, the series has been newly reinterpreted and recreated as a joint artwork.

We invite you to experience this compelling and time-spanning exhibition.