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Lot Essay
One might instantly categorize Takahashi Kenta's works as urban art, however the medium used in his works reveals a much broader concept.
Takahashi Kenta is trained in nihonga (Japanese traditional painting) and he utilizes such practice in all of his works, despite of their modern appearance. In the present lot, he depicts a diamond steel plate in silver leaf and gofun (shell power) with graffiti realized by mineral pigments on Japanese paper in screen format. The elements illustrated in the work form an urban landscape that is visible on the streets of all seven continents on the earth. By transforming the seasoned nihonga medium which contains a strong regional tag into a piece of universally shared memory, Takahashi Kenta blurs the physical distance and differences between each nation, and brings conversations on contemporary daily experiences in a traditional language that is long-celebrated but commonly dissociated with urban life.
Takahashi Kenta is trained in nihonga (Japanese traditional painting) and he utilizes such practice in all of his works, despite of their modern appearance. In the present lot, he depicts a diamond steel plate in silver leaf and gofun (shell power) with graffiti realized by mineral pigments on Japanese paper in screen format. The elements illustrated in the work form an urban landscape that is visible on the streets of all seven continents on the earth. By transforming the seasoned nihonga medium which contains a strong regional tag into a piece of universally shared memory, Takahashi Kenta blurs the physical distance and differences between each nation, and brings conversations on contemporary daily experiences in a traditional language that is long-celebrated but commonly dissociated with urban life.