Ichiro Tanida

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Solo exhibition “KEKKAI to RENGE”

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September 14, 2024 (Sat.) - October 5, (Sat.)

Opening hours: 13:00-19:00

Closing date: Sunday

 

YOD Gallery is pleased to present Ichiro Tanida's “KEKKAI to RENGE”.
Ichiro Tanida has been active in a wide range of creative fields since the late 1980s, first attracting attention in 1994 with his CD-ROM work “UNDERGROUND A to Z : SO OUT” linking CG and music to express his unique worldview. Later, he directed more than 30 commercials a year as a commercial director, starting with the “Laforet Grand Bazar” series of commercials, which he created using his experience in CG production. He has also been active as a video artist VJ TECHNOVA since 2018. In 2022, he made his debut as a contemporary artist at Akio Nagasawa Gallery.

Tanida uses an original typeface he designed himself, “Namuamyochotai,”(His original font based from “Namu Amida Butsu”) and sublimates it into an abstract painting by applying layers of color to it. The transformation of design into art within a single canvas can be seen as embodying the way the artist's complex career becomes causal and embedded within the work. In the work, the act of creat- ing and “erasing” color occurs simultaneously. The abstracting of “Namu Amida Butsu” embraces his interest in life and death that surrounds him, and his unfathomable desire for art. The works that emerge from this process can be said to signify Tanida's reincarnation as a painter. The new space created by the vivid layers of color and depth that eventually emerge in his paintings gives viewers an energetic and vivid impression of life.

In this exhibition, two works will be presented in two spaces: “Kekkai,” the work that marked the beginning of Tanida's career as a contemporary artist, exhibited at his first solo exhibition “Graffiti Buddha” at Akio Nagasawa Gallery Aoyama in 2022, and “Lotus,” exhibited at the following year's solo exhibition in 2023. We will reconsider the “art” that Tanida has faced while working in various creative fields such as graphic designer, CG artist, commercial director, and videographer.

The artist will be at the gallery on:September 14.
 

We hope you will take this opportunity to visit the exhibition.

 

Artist Statement

The first solo exhibition “Graffiti Buddha” (2022) and “Renge” (2023) will be exhibited in two rooms.
Room 1
The work “KEKKAI” is a work in which the barrier (Kekkai) inside the canvas has been removed and the new Boundary Zone (Kekkai) has been re-set up. The work is completed by erasing the painting instead of painting it. Painting is an act to connect to the next, and the erased part exists as a paint- ing. The sequence of flow is reminiscent of “Shoho Muga” (Non-self) and “Engi”.

Room 2
The “Lotus” is a representation of an abstracted six-character name (Namu Amida Butsu) that appears on a lotus flower and instantly transforms into the principal image of the Buddha. This is the first step in my own way of contemplating the Buddha.
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One of the core themes of my work is “Engi”.
“Engi” is an abbreviation for ‘Innensyoki (Dependent Co-Arising)’ meaning that all beings are interre- lated, and nothing exists on its own. For example, a flower will not bloom unless a seed is sown, and things do not exist by themselves because they need soil, water, and sunlight.
All things are causally related.

I have been working as a graphic designer, CGartist, commercial director, and videographer for about 40 years, and came to realize that everything that I’ve done to this point is interconnected. May the path from the “KEKKAI” to the “Renge” leads us further into the past and into the future.
 

Ichiro Tanida





 

*Shoho Muga...sabbe dhammā anatta
*Innensyoki...Pratītya-samutpāda
*Namu Amida Butsu...namo- amitāyus- amitābha

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