Masao Yamamoto: Kawa=Flow
Overview
Masao Yamamoto presents new work that departs from his multi-part installations in the past, a hallmark of his work since his first exhibitions. In his latest project, entitled Kawa-Flow, Yamamato displays single framed black and white prints of depopulated nature scenes made in Japan. The series title refers to the journey from the present to the future, from a concrete situation to the unknown ahead. While his earlier work, tiny tea-stained prints, conveyed nuance in the delicacy of the print as object, the newer, bolder work have nuance embedded into the pictorial structure. Whether it’s a graphic, Bauhaus-inspired image of electrical wires telescoping into the far distance (1549) or a delicate cloud-covered mountain range, he focuses on the timeless values contained in appreciating the beauty of our surroundings. Originally trained as a painter, the artist developed his own visual language based upon the groupings of small details and moments. The more forceful signature emerging in most recent photographs points to a more aggressive interest in permanence and in the structures ever-present in the natural world. These singular works are self-sufficient, not relational, as the earlier work. What we need from art we can find in every single image.