SOM GALLERY is delighted to announce "Who’s Afraid of Bild-ing”, a solo exhibition by Etsuko Watanabe on view from December 11 to 29.
This will be Watanabe's first solo exhibition at SOM GALLERY following the group show "INTERVERSE" in June 2023. In addition to oil paintings, this exhibition will also feature drawing works for the first time.

Until now, she has ingeniously captured a scene of a different nature hidden in familiar daily scenery and questioned how our recognition grasps reality by means of paintings, and at the same time, what a painting itself should be. In recent years, Watanabe has been creating the "Bild-ing" series, which is also the title of this exhibition. By digitally adding numerous vertical and horizontal strokes with her finger on images of buildings she has taken, she retouches them, revealing a weird space while simultaneously regressing towards the "imperfect". After that, by using the paint and through the process of painting, Watanabe expresses images that lie in the "intermediate space between figuration and abstraction," attempting to explore the "expansion of painting".

The title of this exhibition, "Who’s Afraid of," is derived from Barnett Newman's later work, Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue (1966-1970). Newman's works, composed of bold color fields and only a few elements, can be said to have questioned the essence of painting, through the immense color fields that express a rigor and grandeur akin to faith. Such an approach by Newman is also one of the experiences Watanabe had during her youth in Germany. Through the experience of various changes in the nature of painting, what is now being developed in the "Bild-ing" series is a reality on the canvas, created by the nuanced figuration of night views from a window and the abstract color fields that cut into the pictorial space. Through the interaction on this canvas, Watanabe poses to the viewer the textures of the urban landscape, which at times feels cold and at times carries warmth, as a singular way of being in painting.

 I often use neologisms in my titles. This is always the result of an intuition that arises spontaneously, as if it were falling from the sky. Since this time I also used images of buildings at night, the word "building" came to mind, which then led to the word "Bild," and I added "ing" to it. "Bild" means "painting" or "image" in German, and it is combined with the English suffix "ing" (present progressive).

2024.12 Etsuko Watanabe 

Etsuko Watanabe was born in 1960 in Tokyo. She graduated from Department of Painting, College of Art and Design in Musashino Art University in 1982, and studied abroad in Kunstakademie Düsseldorf at the year. She studied under Gerhard Richter and obtained her Meisterschüler degree in 1985. After that, she continued to create and exhibit her work in Düsseldorf until 2013.
Major solo exhibitions include “News” at Yumiko Chiba Associates (Tokyo, 2015), “picture in picture” at Yumiko Chiba Associates (Tokyo, 2014) and Kunstraum Düsseldorf (Düsseldorf, 2011).
Major group exhibitions include “INTERVERSE” at SOM GALLERY (Tokyo, 2023), "Gegenüberstellung / confrontation” at Yumiko Chiba Associates viewing room Shinjuku (Tokyo, 2021) and　"Looking for the 4th Dimension ‒ with works of Salvador Dali and　Contemporary Art” at Morohashi Museum of Modern Art (Fukushima, 2019).