SHINJI OGAWA (JAPAN, B. 1959)

The first thing that Shinji Ogawa impresses upon his viewers is probably his extreme precision in depiction. Other than oil painting, the black and white pencils are his magnificent creative weapon of choice. The calm and nuanced tones of the pencil are eternally alluring. Shinji Ogawa likes to derive his subject matters from history – old postcards, photographs, Western or Japanese traditional paintings inspire his creative endeavours. Antwerp - Geneva 1 (Symmetry / Asymmetry series) (Lot 148) resembles a replica of a black and white photograph. Yet, the placement of the architecture creates a symmetrical effect that is akin to a mirror image–it creates an ambiguity that is both real and illusionary. Through the juxtaposition of the familiar and the unfamiliar, symmetrical a n d a symmetrical, as well as objective and subjective visual treatments, the artist compels the viewers to reflect on their conventional visual experience and judgement of the physical world. It is an examination that seeks to understand the meaning and truthfulness of how time and space relate to people.