2011 Exhibits
Brush With
Nature
Soyokaze
The Notion
of Home
Art Exhibit - Hayes Gallery
“Soyokaze”
Kiyoshi Otsuka acrylic paintings
Artist statement
My acrylic abstractions develop directly from experience of the landscape. I grew up in the mountains in Gumma prefecture, Japan. Now I am working in propagation at The New York Botanical Garden. The organic forms of roots and trees, shrubs and flowers, water and weather provide inspiration. Water is the elemental aspect/concept of my work. Water provides nourishment through roots, and the intensity of roots energy is powerful. I aim to express this power through my paintings. Water is my medium with acrylic paint. And a liquidity is often evident in some of my very abstract pieces. I recycle my own “ancient” paintings and these layers of experience meet with the immediate act of painting to accomplish deep color and spatial depth, and a tangible impression of natural form. The newest paintings are inspired by emotion translated into vibrant gesture. I work with both a black and white as well as colorful palette to explore human nature in an abstract arena.
Biography
Born in the mountains north of Tokyo in Gumma Prefecture, Japan, Kiyoshi Otsuka studied in Paris at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. Stimulated by the encouragement of Akiyama, a sculptor friend and mentor, Otsuka moved to New York and enrolled at the Art Student’s League. There, he studied with Knox Martin. Recently he has worked in his studio at ArtsWestchester landmark building in White Plains. His work has been exhibited in galleries in New York, London, Pennsylvania and Japan. Otsuka’s paintings are included in private collections in New York, Tokyo, and Paris.
For more information, please call (914) 669-5033 or email gardenprogram@yahoo.com
