What makes the exhibition in two stages of Yoshio Kitayama's works at the MEM gallery in Osaka all the more surprising is that they are paintings — not the sculpture/installations for which the artist is conventionally known.
In fact, Kitayama's most recent works were shown from Jan. 23 to Feb. 20, and his paintings from the late 1980s will take over from Feb. 27 to March 27. Both exhibitions are strikingly dissimilar, with the most recent work being remarkably sculptural, refined and myopic in detail while the late '80s work can only be called the antithesis of this.
For the purpose of explaining how this came about, it is helpful to go back to the the late '70s. Born in 1948, Kitayama emerged in his 20s in the '70s Mono-ha (School of Things) era that was flush with ideas of nonart and conceptual concerns.