Come Play with Me, Tomoo Gokita, 2018, Acrylic gouache on canvas © Tomoo Gokita, Courtesy of Taka Ishii Gallery, Photo: Kenji Takahashi

An exhibition “Peekaboo” by Tokyo-based artist Tomoo Gokita will start at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Japan from April 14th to June 24th, 2018.

Peekaboo features some forty works by Tomoo Gokita, focusing on recent paintings and works on paper, and including an installation of more than 800 small drawings. Gokita (b. 1969, Tokyo) began his career in graphic design creating a series of newsprint books inspired by an eclectic range of sources spanning vintage magazines, film stills, pornography, and postcards.

His primarily monochromatic paintings are a unique interplay of high-brow and low-brow references in which he humorously depicts the archetypes of modern Western society: cowboys, starlets, thieves and pulp-fiction detectives, among others. The visual narrative is brought to life through meticulous compositions of textural and tonal range — layers of gouache against acrylic, smears of lacquered black glaze over matte shades of grey and brushstrokes of white.

Following the critical acclaim of his solo exhibition at the Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art in Sakura, Japan in 2014, this is his first solo presentation at an institution in Tokyo.

Tomoo Gokita “Peekaboo”
Date: April 14th – June 24th, 2018
Open: 11:00 – 19:00 (Friday and Saturday till 20:00)
Closed on Mondays (except 30 April)
Place: Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery
Admissions: Adult 1200 yen, University and high school students 800 yen
Tel: +81 (0)3 5777 8600
Organiser: Tokyo Opera City Cultural Foundation
Coordination: Taka Ishii Gallery
https://www.operacity.jp