Imaginarium

Born and brought up in Venice, Michele scrutinizes the relentless real world and follows the creative voice that wells up in his mind to unceasingly produce paintings relying on his particular body with hearing impairment and his spirit protected by a shelter of self-consciousness. The artistʼs mind and body are inseparable from the world represented in his works and his expressions are truly “of life.” He captures views of nature he sees in clear-cut, nonhesitant brushwork in one brief session. The artist himself contributed the following words to this work. *

Chie Sumiyoshi

Born in 1989, Anju Michele currently lives and works in Kyoto. Thanks to his unparalleled creativity since his childhood, the artist captures the scenes in front of him and instantaneously converts the information into the act of painting. His discernment in terms of grasping various forms and his speed has been more sophisticated than ever, and it has become the foundation of his art practice. It is difficult to pursue one’s true self and expression while being detached from the conceptual world. However, Anju could create his art easily under such conditions as if light and wind passed by plants and flowers by leaving their marks on them.

Imaginarium, the title of his first solo exhibition at ShugoArts, is a word created by Anju, meshing “imagination” and “-arium,” which represents a place in Latin. Anju Michele’s paintings, in which his imagination gives birth to his creation, implies the fact that we humans are innately free.

In circle, which was just completed this March, Anju painted circles, so softly that they look like they are floating, on a piece of aluminum paper that he has utilized lately. Those circles seem to be wide-open mouths, which could be entrances to various spatio-temporal worlds, or planets observing our world from different dimensions; they are beautiful as they exist there. In this exhibition, the artist presents close to twenty-four new artworks all at once. Please visit us to experience Anju Michele’s Imaginarium.

＊Chie Sumiyoshi “Anju Michele” (VOCA2020, The Ueno Royal Museum, 2020, p.26) Translated by Kikuko Ogawa

May 2020, ShugoArts