Description
Kensuke Koike [b.1980, Japan] creates unique artwork by manipulating found, vintage, photographic material. Kensuke’s approach revolves around the idea of using the assets found within an image to create a contemporary visual with a new narrative. The process for the artist often starts as a puzzle begging to be solved with each image setting its own unique challenges.
Koike’s practice is centred around a philosophy of ‘no more, no less’ exploring the possibilities of creating a new image made up only of itself. Using found objects in this way creates a more dynamic way of working, as although he experiments with many prototypes initially, there is only one chance to work with the original photograph.
Koike introduces a performative element to his practice through his exhibiting of both the processes and final works, which is important to understand both the humour and reverence with which he creates his vision.
His artworks have been exhibited globally at museums and exhibitions around the world such as The Photographers’ Gallery, London; Postmasters Gallery, New York; Ciocca Contemporary Art, Milan; A plus A Gallery, Venice; IMA, Tokyo; Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York; Design Museum, London; Asama International Photo Festival, Japan and Guangdong Museum of Art, China. He has been the artist-in-residence at SEPTIEME Gallery, Paris, SuperOtium, Naples and the Kala Institute, Berkely.
Open Doors Gallery is the UK representative for Kensuke Koike’s art sales.
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Feel Better Now?
Open Doors Gallery is delighted to present Kensuke Koike’s latest collection, ‘Feel Better Now?‘. The unique screen prints that make up this series mark a new direction in Koike’s experimental practice. Continuing the artist’s career-long fascination with the possibilities found within an image. As the artist says “this series will help me to expand further a way of seeing and thinking… to find something extraordinary from ordinary.”
‘Feel Better Now?‘ leans on the themes set out within the Dadaist & Pop Art movement. By selecting just one image the artist can create infinite variations. Experimenting with the repetition of a single portrait frees the artist to explore new pathways within his practice. Switching the blade and a cutting board for a squeegee and a matrix, Koike extracts what he needs from the image and creates something contemporary and unexpected. Treating the image itself like a palette filled with shapes, tones and tools. By changing his medium the precision he is used to in his two main bodies of work to date Todays Curiosity & Single Image Processing is substituted for a more painterly solution. Purposefully allowing mistakes or ‘happy accidents’ to complement and transform his practice for the first time. Much like a painter might sometimes welcome a misguided stroke or an unexpected drip of paint… READ MORE
