Keico Watanabe
"An Encounter in the City"

The 8th exhibition at the NYCoo Gallery is of the owner, the one-woman show of Keico Watanabe’s oil paintings.  Watanabe’s 1998 one-woman show at New York’s Cast Iron Gallery was the greatest turning point of her life when she became determined to abandon the work she had been doing in design until then in Tokyo and to work as an artist in New York.  Since then, she has had two one-woman shows in New York, and in spring of this year she established NYCoo Gallery.  Here is a quote from her essay explaining the breathtaking transformation of her life.

The air in New York does not tolerate any excuses from me, sharpening my senses that may become dull with rust.  It thwarts the desire to resolve issues too easily and provides fresh insight, forcing me to question myself when I might try to put on a facade in front of a stranger, allowing me instead to proudly express myself in ways that I might otherwise hide from embarrassment.  There is a mysterious power in this town.  Perhaps because people of different ethnic backgrounds from all over the world live their unique individual lives here, I sometimes feel as though I might be crushed if I can’t express myself convincingly.  But on the other hand, it’s a place where one can follow one’s feelings simply and honestly.”

Watanabe says of gallery management, “ As an Art Director, I came in contact with many works, energized by the exchanges with the artists, and became able to understand their works objectively.  To provide people with a base in New York, I want to work hard in the gallery business to provide opportunities for new artists to make their debut.”

Before moving to New York in 1998, Watanabe had eleven one-woman shows in Tokyo of her acrylic, pastel, and computer graphic works.  This time, the works are oil paintings centering around the theme of the life environment in New York and are positioned as an extension of her two earlier shows.  The entire surface of the paintings is covered with warm colors, and in the all-over image-filled overlapping rows are closely placed apartment-like buildings of ten or more stories.  It is neither a realistic nor an identifiable cityscape but the psycho-ideological vision of the city by this artist.  The clouds swirl around above the city in dusk-like colors.  The observer is drawn into a nostalgic world.

Watanabe said, “The different lives that go on inside the windows of the buildings are engaging.”  This engagement is unlike that of Joseph Cornell who created works of boxes having peered into the windows of apartments along the elevated tracks in Brooklyn and Queens as a subway conductor.  In the works of this artist, the numerous small windows are consistently painted in pale pinks and pleasant blues.  Quite the opposite of the conflict of contemporary society that Cornell’s works depict, one detects a kind of utopian urban society.  Where did this point of view come from, and where is it going?  Is it a certain aspect of oil painting conventions that might have made the artist create works such as these?  Such questions could be posed once more in viewing works to come.

This one-woman show is entitled “An Encounter in the City.”  It comes from Watanabe’s idea, “The excitement of New York makes me feel alive and relieved that it is a place where unimaginable things can happen.  Paintings begin to take shape, just by walking around the city.

Gallery writer: Hitoshi Nakazato
Translation : Sumiko Takeda