Frieze New York

Axel Vervoordt Gallery is pleased to participate in Frieze New York 2019 with a solo presentation of Ryuji Tanaka, the late Japanese painter whose work the gallery has represented since 2016 in collaboration with the artist’s estate.

The Frieze New York’s stand offers an overview of Tanaka’s work following his Gutai period. After pursuing the study of nihon-ga, traditional Japanese painting, Tanaka associated himself with important post-war art movements that expanded the boundaries of classic styles. He started experimenting with new forms, techniques, material use, performative painterly practices, and subject matters.

Although Tanaka absorbed the influences of these post-war modernist movements, he always kept a distinctly personal creative viewpoint. His abstract lyricist paintings constantly confront natural power, the language of materiality, and the immediacy of experience.