Emi Mizukami

Emi Mizukami works from allegorical sources to create materially-rich surfaces. She starts by depicting figures, referencing ancient mythology, late Guston, Edo Period art, tarot cards, and personal symbology. These compositions are then obscured in thick pastes of acrylic paint mixed with desert sand. Only traces of the original content are legible in the final image. Mizukami considers the entirety of her panels, including painting and collage on the backside, replicating the initial illustration that is now hidden. In some works, Mizukami overstretches the linen of her panels, as though the paintings spill outside the bounds of the frame. In Mizukami’s practice, each accumulative decision acknowledges the passing of time and the memory of her process.

In her solo show Pale Phantom, Mizukami represents time most directly through illustrations featuring the sun and moon. Her figures stalk both times of day, neither fully awake nor dreaming, wandering through hypnogogic states. Other paintings are lit by lamps held by tip-toeing figures, guiding us through her dark and unwieldy labyrinth. Mizukami’s figures haunt her work like the shadows cast by the lanterns they carry. Walking through the gallery space Mizukami’s pieces begin to echo one other, each motif scattered but beholden to its materiality.

Pale Phantom operates as an index to Mizukami’s exploration of painting in three dimensions. The open-ended quality of her work predetermines that it cannot be experienced all at once. Instead, Mizukami creates paintings that present both visible and invisible gestures, the total experience of her work always fragmented. Mizukami’s work suggests that we can only see what is visible through the awareness of what has been lost and what has yet to come.

Emi Mizukami (b. 1992) is an artist born and based in Tokyo, JP. Select solo and two-person exhibitions include Ritsuki Fujisaki Gallery (Tokyo, JP), Larder (Los Angeles, CA), Cadan Yurakucho (Tokyo, JP), 4649 (Tokyo, JP), Tokyo Arts and Space Hongo (Tokyo, JP), Pina (Vienna, AT). Recent group exhibitions include Ehrlich Steinberg (Los Angeles, CA), Hagiwara Projects (Tokyo, JP), NowHere curated by Jeffrey Rosen (New York, NY), VOCA at Ueno Royal Museum (Tokyo, JP), No Gallery (New York, NY), and Each Modern (Taipei, TW).