Keisuke Shirota’s works, which continue themes from his first show in 2004, merge the worlds of photography and painting to sit somewhere between. He presents large, mainly black canvases on which blurry color night shots of ordinary Tokyo streets are stuck. Shirota then employs the possibilities of paint to extend these blurry scenes, by enlarging the photo’s planes of perspective out into the panoramic world of his 2-meter-wide canvases. The results are realistic, eye-grabbing works that are at the same time unclear and missing in parts. It is as if the mechanical eye of the camera has merged with the selective world of seeing and perceiving.
Shirota’s aim is take the viewer somewhere deep in his/her memory, and that he does. His photos might not be replaceable, and he might extend them in his studio with little memory of when and where they were taken. However, the results — despite their eerie lack of people — will be strangely familiar to any Tokyoite.
Born in 1975 in Kanagawa, Japan. SHIROTA Keisuke graduated from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Faculty of Fine Arts in 2001, and received his master's degree in 2003. He participated in various exhibitions, including: "Tokyo Art University Graduation Work Exhibition" (2003, Tokyo); "Shell Art Award" (2004, Tokyo); "A Sense of Distance" (2004, Tokyo); "VOCA 2005" (2005, Tokyo); "Overlap" (2006, Seoul); "Young Japanese Landscape" (2007, Vienna); "Group Exhibition of Lee Wonchul, Shirota Keisuke and Wang Fenghua" (2007, Taipei); "Fictitious Reality: Asian Contemporary Image Exhibition" (2009, Taipei).
Shirota’s aim is take the viewer somewhere deep in his/her memory, and that he does. His photos might not be replaceable, and he might extend them in his studio with little memory of when and where they were taken. However, the results — despite their eerie lack of people — will be strangely familiar to any Tokyoite.
Born in 1975 in Kanagawa, Japan. SHIROTA Keisuke graduated from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Faculty of Fine Arts in 2001, and received his master's degree in 2003. He participated in various exhibitions, including: "Tokyo Art University Graduation Work Exhibition" (2003, Tokyo); "Shell Art Award" (2004, Tokyo); "A Sense of Distance" (2004, Tokyo); "VOCA 2005" (2005, Tokyo); "Overlap" (2006, Seoul); "Young Japanese Landscape" (2007, Vienna); "Group Exhibition of Lee Wonchul, Shirota Keisuke and Wang Fenghua" (2007, Taipei); "Fictitious Reality: Asian Contemporary Image Exhibition" (2009, Taipei).
