Continuing through March 14, 2015
“Exquisite” is a word that gets attached too frequently to art that is not necessarily that, but in the case of Takahiko Hayashi’s works on paper, the adjective is apt. Hayashi’s lyrical exhibition, entitled “in a swirl of many, many small circles,” includes intaglio etchings and works in pen and paint on “gampi” paper. The latter body of work features small circles, lines, and organic shapes in energetic compositions that can be read either as abstract or as evocations of sky, stars, water, hills, raindrops, or snowflakes.
A suite of twelve small (16 1/2 x 11 inches) works is dramatically installed in two rows of six pieces per row. In “D-5.Jan.2015” blue lines and circles seem to whirl around one another in cyclonic motion, their contours spiraling outward like a nautilis’ shell. There are pinpricks through the center of myriad circles in “D-6.Nov.2014” and “D-14.Mar.2013,” lending an extraordinary sense of intricacy and fastidious execution. The prints further develop the spiral motifs, which overlap and interlock in a soothing medley of orange and ecru. Throughout the exhibition, the works marry simple shapes with an invigorating complexity of overall composition.
