Koshiro Kihara’s Fascinating Blob Paintings

We’re loving the strangely beautiful paintings by Koshiro Kihara, who blends three-dimensional forms with abstracted concepts and ideas. The Japanese painter and his twin brother Kenshiro Kihara both exhibit fascinating work, and we’re particularly struck by Koshiro’s bold use of hue and material, conjuring up textures like Jell-o, glass, and more.

The use of shading and shadow bring a real dimensionality to the work, bordering on hyper-realism.

See more of Kihara’s work on his website. Via Juxtapoz:

I would like to explore the boundary between “abstraction” and “figuration” by coexisting these two opposing elements on a single canvas. In my work, there exist a number of “abstract” and “figurative” elements with different vectors in various senses, and their complex intertwining blurs the boundary between the two.

　At the same time, they also contain such dichotomies as “fact” and “fiction,” “moment” and “eternity,” “two-dimensional” and “three-dimensional,” “original” and “copy,” “natural” and “artificial.

　I move back and forth between “abstract” and “figurative” and various other dichotomies in my work. What I want to express is both and neither. The dichotomy can be easily expressed in words, but it is the boundary between the two that has an appeal that words cannot fully express, and for this reason, I believe there is a necessity for me to create paintings.

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-​Koshiro Kihara