“Standing on the platform which is anchored, motionless like a ship in the middle of ‘the white river with clear pure water (清澄白河)’ flowing through the space where everyone is just passing by, I wish to keep looking closely at a landscape which peeps out occasionally from the gap in the fog called reality, and which should be ‘here, right now’ that leads to someone else.”
– Shinpei Kusanagi, Kiyosumi and its environs

Altman Siegel is pleased to present A view from a platform, an exhibition of new paintings by Shinpei Kusanagi. Employing gestural brushstrokes and washes of color on raw, untreated canvas, Kusanagi’s work captures natural ephemerality through observant abstraction.

Inspired by the transience of train platforms, a space dedicated solely to movement, Kusanagi’s resplendent paintings fluctuate between states of calm and energy. Sheer washes of color intermingle and overlap, creating mystifying shades. Brushstrokes of varying intensities and sharpness coalesce on the painting’s surface. Reminiscent of water rippling with the tide or grass swaying in the wind, these expressive marks evoke landscapes without referencing specific times or places.

Kusanagi begins painting without a plan, instead allowing movements and gestures to accumulate with time naturally. This practice encourages spontaneity, forming layered, sedimentary surfaces that hover and recede into deep space. This dynamic nature creates subtle tension, reflecting the robust, fleeting energy of our wider environment and the memories it elicits.

Altman Siegel