Kentaro Izumi: The Landscape of Memory

Artist Statement:

For this show the subject I have chosen is the city of Setagaya in Tokyo, where I grew up. My family and I lived in Sakurajosui in Setagaya for about ten years, from age four until fourteen.

I do not consider my vertical format landscapes to be influenced from Japanese-style paintings or Les Nabis from the 1890’s. I chose this type of format for my landscape paintings because I like the sky.  To me, sky represents tranquility. I like to contrast the sky with trees, humans, artificial things and so on, to demonstrate simplicity against intricacy, big and small. Compositionally I find it comfortable for me to have a large space for sky.

Still Life Gallery is honored to exhibit Kentaro Izumi’s latest body of work and welcome him to Ellicott City. We served Sake and fresh Figs. We will be exhibiting more of his paintings as they arrive from Japan.