At Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, Japanese painter Akihiko Sugiura explores a magical world of the fluid energy fields that he regards as the inner essence of what most of us see as the “real world.”
In “Beard,” we see a man who at first glance might appear to be an assertive redhead, but up close he becomes a demonic visage of red, green and yellow slashes of color. “Two” depicts two girls sitting on a sofa. One's pose suggests she might be resting her feet on a footstool, but her lower legs are missing. Her ghostly pale partner gazes at her seemingly in mid-conversation.
In these works, Sugiura depicts the fluid and ever-shifting spectrum of physical and emotional energies that he perceives just below the surface of ordinary, everyday life.
Written by D. Eric Bookhardt