Gallery Rosenfeld is pleased to announce our participation in Art Brussels with works by Keita Miyazaki, José Castiella, Qingzhen Han and Pieter Obels.
Keita Miyazaki’s sculptures feature materials whose association suggests strident discord and unfamiliar visual language. Discarded car engine components are welded together and then combined with coloured origami-like folded paper and sewn felt, fashioning sculptures of contradiction and aesthetic intrigue. An element of sound inspired by the jingles found in Japanese supermarkets and metro stations is often incorporated through small speakers echoing the cacophonic persistence of city life and the banalisation of daily existence. The juxtaposing of solid and universal materials such as metal against light and fragile paper and felt, escape formal paradigms, rather evoking a sense of post-apocalyptic reconciliation. Signaling a formal departure from his hybrid biomorphic sculptures, Miyazaki’s latest body of work draws on the ‘Vanitas’ of seventeenth century Dutch painting igniting profound philosophical meditations on the transience of human existence; in response to the redundancy of our supposedly coveted industrial society, the fascination with ruins and the beauty inherent within them has informed Miyazaki’s whole practice from recuperating the relics of a defunct age to the insertion of found objects.
José Castiella explores through a constant speculation with his materials, the possibility of new life forms after collapse. This ongoing research reflects and expresses his own concerns regarding the unknown. He proposes the generation of a new world, as a way of mirroring the current one. The artist's characters arise as a result of accident and chance in an entropic process in which poured paint and mark-making are transferred to the linen canvas on the floor of his studio. Once dried, and with the canvas on the wall, characters start to appear. This leads to a form of narration through representation. The paint itself suggesting life and content. Castiella’s practice is rich in references to art history and popular culture alike. Each composition's population of paint-characters connects conversely with Hieronymus Bosch and isometric RPG videogame aesthetics. Likewise, the tragic-comic appearance of the work seems to undergo some of the cosmic terror of H.P Lovecraft, melted into the influence of Yōkai, Moebius, and Studio Ghibli anime. This is a world with the appearance of sci-fi, that seems to tell us about our hidden impulses, an inner journey, or the fear of the unknown.
