A one-way itinerary
Shinpei Okawa

Inside and Outside the Pictorial Space ̶ On the Method Discovered by Shinpei Okawa

Yuji YAMASHITA

I first encountered the work of Shinpei Okawa in 2007, when he was a graduate student at Tokyo University of the Arts. I became aware of his practice once again in 2010, after seeing his solo exhibition at a gallery in Ginza, Tokyo, and in 2011 I featured him in my column “Yuji Yamashitaʼs Hidden Gem of the Month” in the art magazine Bijutsu no Mado. The column was dedicated primarily to introducing emerging artists who had yet to gain wide recognition, and it continues today in Geijutsu Shincho.

Nearly twenty years have passed since I first encountered Okawaʼs work during his student years. Throughout this time, I have visited many of his exhibitions. His fundamental approach has remained consistent: carefully weaving together scenes from his memories and rendering them with extraordinary precision. Yet in recent years, Okawa has discovered a groundbreaking new method, producing a succession of highly ambitious works based on this approach.

One example is the work I Who Pray for You , presented in this exhibition. It consists of two square panels, each measuring 606 × 606 mm. Depicted is the back view of a girl with a ponytail. The texture of her clothing and the subtle gradations of light and shadow are rendered with remarkable detail. To the right, a hand turning the pages of a book appears. This image is, in fact, a quotation from Reading by Seiki Kuroda (1866‒1924), one of the pioneers of modern Western-style painting in Japan, now in the collection of the Tokyo National Museum. While studying in France, Kuroda created this work between 1890 and 1891, using a woman named Maria Billault as his model. The painting was accepted into the French Salon, marking Kurodaʼs first major recognition there. It is therefore especially meaningful that this work by Okawa, which incorporates such a reference, will be exhibited in France. Okawaʼs practice is deeply informed by an awareness of the history of the introduction and development of Western painting in modern Japan.What makes this diptych particularly remarkable is the unique method through which it has been conceived. By reversing the left and right panels, or by turning them upside down, the work can be transformed into entirely new continuous compositions measuring either 606 × 1,212 mm or 1,212 × 606 mm. By closely observing the motifs painted along the four edges of each square panel, one can confirm that the images seamlessly connect regardless of how the panels are rearranged. In other words, this two-panel work is, in essence, four different works at once. When I asked Okawa how he arrived at such an extraordinary concept through our correspondence, he offered the following explanation:

“In my early works, I wanted to place everything I imagined onto a large canvas. However, no matter how large the canvas became, the existence of its edges inevitably required cropping, and I could never achieve the sense of scale I was seeking. I therefore began to reinterpret the idea of a ʻlarge imageʼ as an image without an end. This became the starting point for the works I create today. As I continued to explore this approach, I realized that it was connected to Genpei Akasegawaʼs The Canned Universe , and I became increasingly conscious of creating spaces that expand inward.”

The avant-garde artist Genpei Akasegawa (1937‒2014), shared a close friendship, created The Canned Universe . In this seminal work, Akasegawa removed the label from an ordinary can, took out its contents, placed the label on the inside of the can, and resealed it. Through this reversal, the “universe” that existed outside the can was enclosed within it, transforming it into the “Canned Universe.” First presented in 1964, it remains one of the ultimate examples of conceptual art.

By discovering a method in which the two panels of a painting can be rearranged in any direction̶horizontally or vertically̶Shinpei Okawa has found a way to move freely between the inside and outside of pictorial space. Within this expanded pictorial realm, fragments of his personal memories are scattered among various motifs and rendered with extraordinary precision. I believe Okawaʼs work represents a new form of Surrealism for the twenty-first century: one born from a groundbreaking method that fundamentally reconsiders the possibilities of painting itself.