New at Monkdogz Urban Art: YUICHIRO SHIBATA

[Fnurkus Artvark, Lover of the Bizarre...]

YUICHIRO SHIBATA
Master of Color and Form

If you are lucky, once or twice in your life time, you will have the opportunity to come face to face with greatness.
Yuichiro Shibata is just one such phenomenon. He is an artist who has lived and worked in Chelsea since the 1960s.
Disillusioned by gallery politics and practices in the 1990s, Shibata went into hibernation and painted solidly for the last decade, steadily creating a significant volume of work of which will be making its debut at Monkdogz Urban Art on
Thursday, February 28th 2008.

Born in Japan in 1945 he grew up in the turmoil of a post-war nation that was trying to claw its way out of destruction and poverty by modernizing and westernizing itself.

During his youth he spent several years of tutelage under Nozaki, who was student of Matisse in Paris and the first winner of the Viennale Grand Pix.
He was also heavily influenced by Leonardo da Vinci and Vincent van Gogh.
In 1967 he uprooted himself at the age of 22 and moved to New York on his own, knowing that the center of the modern art world was developing there
and if he wanted to succeed, this is where he had to be.

He matured quickly, affected by the cultural shock of New York,where the loneliness, anonymity and urban dissonance, brought a new dimension to his work.

Shibata’s experiences coalesced to create very contemporary work that transcends eras,
borders, language and cultures and reflects the kaleidoscope of the changing times of the modern day world.

He has successfully straddled the East-West divide, bringing the best of both worlds together to create a dynamic style.

Shibata’s “Landscape of Life” Series is a dimensional study of life.
Each of the works in this series is built on spiral lines, spheres and shadows created by those spheres.
The spirals signify the cycle of life; the spheres, what life creates and the shadows prove the validity and existence of life’s creations.

Yuichiro Shibata is a master of color, form and concepts.
The works are infused with clean lines full of strong purpose and yet with lightness that shows youthful spirit.
The colors are mature, elegant and complex yet also manage to maintain an unusual freshness.
His predecessors are Mondrian, Rothko, Newman,
Hofmann and Still.

Shibata is today’s great master, who has taken art one step further.

His works create a strong emotion in the viewer.
He compares it a little to seeing a great fireworks display.
The splendor of the show creates awe and a feeling of indescribable beauty and immediate gratification in an instance of time where there is no room for any other thought or feeling.
When it is over, the feelings remain despite emptiness and a yearning for more.

Although these are strong words to describe what could be considered just paint on cloth stretched over wood, they are just words.

There may not be a definition of greatness, but when we see greatness we inherently know it.

Monkdogz Urban Art

Monkdogz Urban Art is contemporary art gallery in Chelsea, New York.
The gallery aims to present a platform and a showcase
for exceptional artists from around the World to exhibit their work.

Monkdogz is very excited to present a solo show of Yuichiro Shibata in “Landscape of Life”.

The opening reception is on Thursday, February 28, 2008 from 5 to 8pm.
The show runs until Saturday March 29, 2008.

Contact: Marina Hadley

[e-mail]

547 W 27 Street New York, NY 10001 - 212 216 0030