BIOGRAPHY
Atsushi Onoe grew up in Ciudad de México and had a brush with magnificent history of Mexico.
He has completed his education from elementary school to high school in Tokyo and moved to Kyoto to engage with architecture.
He has been moving amongst cities and countries since he was born, which made himself a rootless individual. However, the place was not only thing that he was rootless about.
His ambition towards architecture has been nurtured by the artists and painters he met at the art school before studying architecture. The moment he moved in Kyoto, he organized his first show with his colleague and has joined several group shows in Tokyo as well. Practicing painting was never a mere hobby but the practice as significant as architecture for him.
Moving to Zürich for his internship seemed to be the biggest decision he made, however, it was only natural considering the fact he moved many times with his family. This also led him to pursue his Master study in Mendrisio afterwards.
Being fascinated by the diversity of art scene, he has moved his base in Basel to take his practice as his profession, both as an architect and a painter.
CV
2021
“Beautiful Time” – Painting Group Show, at Gallery K in Tokyo
2020
“Japan Collage 2020” – Painting Group Show, at Gallery K in Tokyo
2019
“What color is the wind?” – Painting Group Show, at Gallery K in Tokyo
2018
“Formative Heritage 044-053” – Architecture exhibition, at Arts Chiyoda 331 in Tokyo
2015
“The First Escape Velocity” – Duo art exhibition. with Hodaka Kawasaki, at Gallery Kitano in Kyoto
STATEMENT
“Painting is such a cool hobby, and I can see that it’s helping your practice in architecture a lot.”
– I have been engaging in architecture and painting for seven years, and I always run into architects who think pursuing painting as an architect is nothing but a “hobby” unless you have a degree in art too. I cannot help being shocked by how ignorant architects are. Because, to me, what they are actually saying is that Le Corbusier painted just to pleasure himself. Regardless of focus or style, architects and painters look at the same horizon: to create a spatial illusion. Crossing over these two art forms is rather an intensive journey to seek truth in space, what we actually see and what it means.
Space, by definition, involves a three-dimensional universe, and we humans perceive it through our eyes as a two-dimensional image in our mind. We tend to think that painting is something to look at, however, what painting does is the same as what humans do: making a two-dimensional “image” out of actual space. We see that phenomenon through our eyes “with” painting, which is most likely ambiguous and ephemeral. When it stays in your mind, it becomes a memory.
My interest towards pictorial art has always been the creation of depth on a flat surface. Especially when I engage in abstract paintings, I find myself in the middle of nowhere, which is somewhat familiar to my memory. What I depict on a surface is the “observation” of memory in multi-dimensional space where figuration and abstraction hold their hand and throw fists at each other. Practicing architecture is nothing different in this regard: architects design a space with actual construction material yet try to create a space that may not be explanatory. Moreover, there is always a chance occurrence that artists cannot control even if they think they are handling it.
Through the reciprocal movement between “architecture and painting” or “the Principle of sufficient reason and unreason”, I believe we can provoke the deception of space we see with our eyes. I am not sure if I ever witness the moment it happens in the future, but I’ll be waiting for it while I paint and build.
