There is a natural tension drawn between old and new, conservative and progressive. Often times, it can feel that between those two positions there can be no resolution. Even in art, it can be difficult to fit the opposing ideals together; though when it happens, the results are mystifying. One such confluence of tradition and modernity is the group painting and ceramics show of Hosai Matsubayashi XVI and Trevor Shimizu, on view at Nonaka-Hill.

For those who haven’t seen a roman numeral that large since the French Revolution, our era’s Hosai Matsubayashi is the sixteenth in his family to run their kiln in Uji, Kyoto. Since the year 1600, the Matsubayashi family has produced some of the finest ceramics in all of Japan, most notable for their tea ceremony sets – and every ounce of the centuries of creative ability and technical mastery is on display in dozens of precious objects, from waved vases to earthen tea kettles.

Trevor Shimizu, by contrast, does not stand on a mountain of history but rather at the forefront of contemporary art. A painter and video artist based out of New York, Shimizu is known primarily for his sardonic and comedic works, like his exhibition of fart paintings in 2015. His work is deeply expressive, drawing on modernist influences to paint rapidly and with decisive brushstrokes.

Here in Nonaka-Hill, they have been brought together. Matsubayashi’s ceramics (which draw on a wide variety of traditional Japanese technique, most prominently wabi sabi and blue-washes) sit peacefully on low tables, as if they were set out for use in a tea ceremony. And while still in his abstract style, Shimizu’s large landscape paintings take on a new life when hanging alongside the historic ceramics. One begins to notice the influences of calligraphic styles in Shimizu’s work, and an allowance of negative space not unlike that of ink painting. Likewise, Shimizu’s expressive paintings lend their sense of freedom to the pottery, in turn lifting and re-contextualizing this tradition.

Together, Shimizu and Matsubayashi breathe new meaning into one another’s works, creating an entirely unique experience out of their individual brilliances.

Nonaka-Hill
720 N. Highland Ave.
Los Angeles, CA, 90038
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