Toshimitsu Baba

Base Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition of works by Toshimitsu Baba, on view from June 15 through July 31, 2012.

Baba has kept on painting anonymous landscapes. The serene and silent view with no people just spreads before our eyes there.

Baba uses aluminum panel as the supporting medium for a flat and smooth surface on which several layers of colors are tenderly applied eventually with no mark of brush left. This unique method and approach are still the same for the series of new works of this exhibition.

The landscape he paints is in fact close to the scenery of our dreams and approaches us with more realism. The procedure of painting itself is seemingly cleared away from the surface as if the image turns to become the roadblock of dreams. Staying away from inherent colors and only adopting certain colors which current and wind carry, Baba creates the mild piled-up image.

The subtle tone wedge reminds us of the experience of standing in silence in the dream, and the viewers have the experience of the depicted image thrusting into them deeply.

Toshimitsu Baba explains his artistic path: "I was born in a town called Kawanakajima in Nagano prefecture, and I spent 18 years in that town. “Kawanakajima”, as the name in Japanese indicates, is situated between the two rivers, Shinano River and Sai River. Surrounded by mountains and rivers, the region is richly endowed with nature. In summer it is filled with a sweet scent from the fields full of pink peach trees, and ears of rice gleam in the light of beautiful sunset in autumn.

I have grown up with the blessing of the beautiful scenery of that town. Although I live in Tokyo now, long-forgotten scenery unexpectedly makes an appearance in back with nostalgia every now and then.

The scenery I paint is consistently anonymous one. A wealth of green and nature lap over in many layers, and blue wind blows through above. That sort of common scenery simply grabs me by the collar. What I intend to paint is not a certain something but something deposited in myself already, and it never takes on definite shape or the form of particular place. As the dream often can be more real than the reality, I might be seeking to metamorphose into something, hide out somewhere, find the place where I can be myself though once lost, and land back at that place with the march of time at the end. I feel that I can go back to my abundant memory only by cu rtailing the details and applying only a few kinds of colors.

If the expression is to make sure who I am, I would like to return to the place full of memory that have slowly made up myself by taking over the smidgen of colors and shape repeatedly.

Toshimitsu Baba
He was born in Nagano, Japan. In 2001he studied Architecture and Buildings Engineering at Hosei University and graduated in 2006 from Tama Art University, majored in oil painting. He finished in 2008 his post-graduate studies in Art Science at Tama Art University. Currently he lives and works in Tokyo.

Base Gallery
103-0025
Koura Daiichi Bldg.1F 1-1-6
Nihombashi Kayabacho Chuo-ku Tokyo
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