"My visual work is what I observe – borderless energy that flows between groups, countries, and cultures. The cloud shapes in the sky reflect how the world is connected."
Ambivalence is Yoshihiro Kitai’s fourth solo exhibition with Froelick Gallery and includes nine works on paper and canvas. The paintings flow with colorful Gansai pigment dots, and reflective gold leaf clouds are layered on top of Kitai’s signature textured gessoed patterns.
This exhibition draws upon Kitai's ongoing observations of American life through the lens of an immigrant. Although now, Kitai has spent half of his life outside of his native Japan, he expresses the difficulty in navigating what he believes are cultural norms.
Kitai writes about Ambivalence, “My visual work is what I observe – borderless energy that flows between groups, countries, and cultures. The cloud shapes in the sky reflect how the world is connected.” Kitai’s metallic clouds form interactions with radiating dot patterns, each single dot representing an individual person that together then become larger communities, taking the shapes of clouds themselves. The viewer seems to be observing the movement of these elements from a bird’s eye view, “...a place from a non-disruptive and fair distance.” (Kitai). These elegant examinations of societal and cultural structures ultimately pay homage to Japanese art traditions.
Yoshihiro Kitai has been represented by Froelick Gallery since 2016.
