NADA Miami 2024
Booth D101
NADA Miami 2024
Booth D101
December 3-7, 2024
Ice Palace Studios
NADA Miami 2024
Booth D101
Public dates December 3-7, 2024
Ice Palace Studios
Laura (the gallery)
1125 E 11th St, Houston, TX
laura@laurathegallery.com
Laura (the gallery) is pleased to announce our participation in NADA Miami 2024. The gallery will present a solo booth of works by Keiko Moriuchi (b. 1943, Osaka, Japan). Now 81 years old, Moriuchi was the last member accepted to join Gutai, Japan’s preeminent post-war avant-garde art group. She is one of Gutai’s few surviving members, and the sole member personally recruited by founder Jiro Yoshihara. Moriuchi’s showing at NADA Miami represents the artist’s debut in the United States.
Moriuchi’s paintings conjure up spirituality with Mandala-like compositions in heavily wrought impasto. The heft of these built up surfaces is bodily and echoes the vigor that went into the action of creating each work. Moriuchi applies layer after layer of Liquitex paint, which accumulates on the painting’s surface topographically, becoming rugged and fantastical terrain. In a sense, she condenses the intense artistic gestures of earlier Gutai members into the corporeal textures of her canvases. Her works are practically frosted, and conjure rococo excesses, layer cakes, and sacred geometries. Moriuchi often gilds her canvases in order to provide protection and cleansing to the beholders of the paintings. Gold, the artist insists, is known for its healing and purifying properties, and activates the divine energy points of the heart and mind.
Moriuchi’s work harkens to Buddhist ideals and ancient Japanese myths, yes, but her practice is rooted in the principles instilled within her from Gutai, and many other historically important figures of international modernism. She lived in the same building as Ad Reinhardt in the late 60’s in New York (on East 19th Street and 3rd Avenue), and counts her relationships with him, Isamu Noguchi, Matsumi Kanemitsu, and Gutai founder Jiro Yoshihara as formative to her development as an artist. A lifetime of artistic exploration, study, and growth has crystallized into these vibrantly baroque paintings with fortified surfaces encased in gold and white gold leaf.
Moriuchi has exhibited widely in Asia and will have her first solo exhibition in the US with Laura (the gallery) in 2025.
About the Artist:
Keiko Moriuchi was born in Osaka, Japan in 1943, and is 81 years old. Moriuchi was the last member accepted to join the Gutai Art Association (hereinafter referred to as Gutai), Japan’s preeminent post-war avant-garde art group. She is one of Gutai’s few surviving members, and the sole member personally recruited by founder Jiro Yoshihara (1905-1972).
Moriuchi first encountered Yoshihara when she entered the Department of Japanese Literature at Osaka Shoin Women’s University in 1962. At this time, Moriuchi, who had considered studying abroad in Paris, was encouraged by Yoshihara to go to New York, which was flourishing as a new center of art. In 1965, she moved to the United States. She resided in a room in a building where Ad Reinhardt (1913-1967) lived, using it as both a residence and a studio to pursue her creative endeavors. Including Reinhardt, she deepened her exchanges with renowned artists of the 20th century such as Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988) and Matsumi Kanemitsu (1922-1992), who was active as a leading figure of abstract expressionism, drawing great inspiration from their innovation and individuality as she established her own artistic path.
Before she moved to the United States and before she became a member of Gutai, she was active in the Tokyo-based Neo Dada group. During this time she had a solo exhibition at the NAIQUA GALLERY in Shinbashi, where avant-garde artists gathered, indicating that she had already attracted attention at a young age.
Upon returning to Japan, she joined Gutai in 1968 and remained an active member until the group disbanded in 1972. For her debut in the group’s Newcomer Exhibition, she presented an avant-garde work consisting of 108 white cushions lined up in a row. This work, which repeats the color white relentlessly, evokes minimalist art by eliminating metaphors and decorations to the utmost, while also suggesting the number “108” symbolizes the amount of earthly desires in Buddhism and the quantity of elements required by humans. Additionally, the sight of the orderly rows of white cushions can also be interpreted to reveal motifs such as ladders, leaving room for imagination and interpretation between meaninglessness and meaning for the viewer.
From 1983 onwards, she broadened her artistic interests and activities by studying human consciousness and energy in Germany while participating in solo and group exhibitions domestically and internationally. At the age of 81, she continues her persistent artistic pursuit, eagerly creating colorful and corporeal works reminiscent of the universe and mandalas.
Artist’s Statement:
The fate of ephemeral living organisms shares similarities with the laws of the universe.
I continue to give gratitude to the various historical figures, ideologists, and great thinkers.
I give gratitude to these people and concepts every day.
I also give gratitude to the completed artworks as well.
- Written on 28 November 2024 in New York.
Keiko Moriuchi, Gabriel’s Net (white gold), 2024, acrylic on canvas, white gold leaf, 24k gold leaf,
35.8 x 28.6 in (90.93 x 72.64 cm)
35.8 x 28.6 in (90.93 x 72.64 cm)
Keiko Moriuchi, Donut Peach, 2024, acrylic on linen, 24k gold leaf, 25.7 x 25.7 x 1 in (65.28 x 65.28 x 2.54 cm)
Keiko Moriuchi, Gabriel's Net (gold), 2025, acrylic on canvas, white gold leaf, 24k gold leaf, 35.8 x 28.6 x 1 in (90.93 x 72.64 x 2.54 cm)
Keiko Moriuchi, Donut Peach, 2024, acrylic on linen, white gold leaf, 24k gold leaf, 18k gold leaf, 25.7 x 25.7 x 1 in (65.28 x 65.28 x 2.54 cm)
Keiko Moriuchi, Donut Peach, 2024, acrylic paint, white gold leaf, 24k gold leaf, 18k gold leaf, glass beads, 35.8 x 28.6 x 1 in (90.93 x 72.64 x 2.54 cm)
Photography © Keiko Moriuchi, courtesy Laura (the gallery) and the artist.