Power Grid 5 by Shuji Usui Painting

Work is for Sale 651-592-5503 My work attempts to capture a scene of industrialization of modern life. Nuclear reactor and power grids are the two most recent subjects of my paintings and drawing. I believe that there is profound implication within the machines. Social system is built upon machines and forms of these machines probably express traces of our thinking. In fact our entire social existences is influenced and controlled by our needs for comfort provided by machines: power grid. I want to embark upon deep explore of energy center and through process of art making. For the preparation of the paintings series called ‘Power Grid’, I visited power grid facilities and took photos, and conducted visual survey. I believe it is important to understand the aspect of infrastructure within our society as well as electrical and structural functionalities of devices. Some of the understandings may not appear immediately in the paintings, however may give profoundness to the paintings. I always conduct back ground researches before making actual art works. Prior to the ‘Power Grid’ series and following the shocking Fukushima nuclear reactor explosion, I made 14’’x17’’ sumi ink drawing series called ‘Fukushima 2011’ just after the accident. This series consists of 10 drawings which were made in midst of turmoil and fear of the recurring Chernobyl. I picked Japanese sumi ink on a sketch book because of its immediateness and connection to Japan. The drawings series are more or less a trace of my personal investigation of the disaster. I researched the nuclear power plant and tsunami disaster prior to making the drawings while the disturbing news was reported one and after. That was my attempt to approach the reality of accident thought art making processes. I have been practicing pencil and ink drawings, and oil and acrylic paintings over decades. I select media based upon subject. One of my oil paintings received award at 2010 Minnesota state fair. Also I have been constantly showing my paintings in group shows at galleries in Minneapolis area past 4 years. I believe that the evolution of our thinking needs to go hand in hand with art creations. Painting and drawing have power to penetrate into reality - breaking though the barrier of linguistic limitations of our thinking. That is what I believe known to be my accomplishment. Recently my interest has shifted toward large scale paintings. The ‘Power Grid’ series is the largest paintings I ever made. The series consisted of two of 36”x48” and two of 40’’x60’’ acrylic paintings on canvas. I believe that this series achieves next level of my artistic expression, which I was not able to do with smaller scale paintings. I am looking forward to making paintings larger than the ‘Power Grid’ series, such as size of 48’’x72’’, 60’’x72’’ or even larger. I believe this will bring another level of expression and detail to my paintings. In terms of my career, solo exhibition is the next step. I have done 16 groups exhibitions in the past 4 years. I have enjoyed participating group exhibitions and came to the conclusion and plateaued in my career. I need to provide body of work, for solo exhibitions, that will clearly express my philosophy, my idea and my painting techniques with regards to center of energy calling machines that so closely tied to our existence as humanity. I am keenly interested in presenting my art works in focused and integrated manner rather than scattered multiple group exhibitions. Shuji Usui 2012