Artist Registry
The White Columns Curated Artist Registry is an online platform for emerging and under-recognized artists to share images and information about their respective practices. The Registry seeks to create a context for artists who have yet to benefit from wider critical, curatorial or commercial support. To be eligible, artists cannot be affiliated with a commercial gallery in New York City.
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RESUME
Rui Araki graduated from the Tokyo University of the Arts and comes from the world of traditional Japanese painting (Nihonga). After traveling to New York and Paris, he has been working in contemporary art since then.
Whereas he previously worked with a very sensory approach to the medium—grinding his own pigments and patiently working with earthy materials in the service of natural subjects—Rui has now turned to abstraction. Abandoning all narration, form, gesture, and even the material itself, he now focuses solely on color and its multiple aspects.
Through a study of rhythms, variations, and modulations, he explores notions of circulation and balance. The surface of the canvas thus becomes a space where the eye is invited to get lost, drawing the viewer into a meditative calm that is, ultimately, not fundamentally different from the goals of Nihonga.