Characters - Joyce Pensato x Yuichi Inoue

Black pigment. Sprawling brushwork. Singular icons. Artists Yuichi Inoue (Japan, 1916-1985) and Joyce Pensato (USA, 1941-2019) lived and worked different times and places, but both created striking, graphic works that challenge the way we perceive familiar characters and symbols. This virtual exhibition explores the visual relationship between the creative output of these two artists, and contrasts the ways that each explored the expressive potential locked within singular signs and figures. Influences in their work range from pictographic characters and pop symbols, calligraphy and Abstract Expressionism, contemporary visual culture and historic tradition, prompting viewers to consider how separate histories and artists might be connected in unexpected ways.