EXHIBITED:
Atsushi Suwa-Solo Painting Exhibition: Realist with Compound Eyes, Sato Museum of Art, Tokyo, from January 17 to Feburary 24, 2008
ILLUSTRATED:
Atsushi Suwa-Solo Painting Exhibition: Realist with Compound Eyes, Sato Museum of Art, Tokyo, 2008, color illustrated, Exhibition flyer

Catalogue Note:
'' Although harmonizing art with life is the ideal, in reality, the process is not smooth, and it makes me feel miserable. Many painters are self-absorbed and self-aggrandizing when painting, which I find inconceivable. Painting is a painful thing. '' －ATSUSHI SUWA

Atsushi Suwa was born in 1967 in Hokkaido, Japan, and studied oil painting at the Art Design Institute of Musashino Art University. In 1994, he was nominated by the Japanese Agency of Cultural Affairs to study art in Spain. In 1995, he was the first Asian artist to win the first prize at the Fifth International Painting Exhibition hosted by the Barcelona Foundation. After returning to Japan, he was awarded the Award for Excellence at the 22nd Rising Artists Exhibition held by the Sompo Japan Museum of Art. Suwa applies classical techniques and his unique personal perspectives to contemporary themes, with the common subject being female nudes. Suwa’s paintings are not impressive merely for their lifelike realism--more importantly, they are a platform for the artist to create an extraordinary atmosphere and articulate attitudes, feelings, thoughts and ideas. Suwa paints the story of humanity and the world.

Suwa's detailed rendering of real-life objects is not limited to what he sees in front of him. He does not hesitate to observe the subject and its surroundings and apply a realistic perspective to create an original image based on it. In Suwa's view, realism is merely the technique; expression is the essence. He is like a reporter with suspicious eyes searching for evidence. He enters subjects’ lives, gets to know their experiences, and tries to recreate them, depicting not only the fleshand-blood appearance of a portrait, but also the life story of a real person. The viewer cannot perceive the fineness of the details on the canvas from the typical point of view. Suwa is famous for his natural skill in realistic painting. The work ''Stereotype－Japanese 02'' uses classical painting techniques to achieve a documentary effect. The artist’s special application of realism transcends the genre of figurative painting and attempts an expanded visual sense of ''seeing and recording.'' The subject appears to sit indifferently in front of the bed. Sombre air seems to fill the space between her wisps of hair; blood seems to pulse under her skin. The fine hairs on her arms are faintly visible, and the natural light reflects off of her body like clear mountain springwater. The subject appears to float in tranquility. The woman’s delicate flesh would appear to be the primary object of the work; however, the light and shadows that bathe her hands and feet tell a different story. Through the woman’s figure to the cold walls in the background, there seems to be some sign, a kind of image that rises above the surface. The heroine seems to breathe on the canvas.

Suwa's works focus on reconstructing the ups and downs of life; what he seeks to recreate, through the medium of highly refined realism, goes far beyond the subject’s external appearance. The artist must
push the limits of his vision to depict textures too fine to be seen with the naked eye. It all started when he finished school and went to Spain, where he met Antonio López-García. A realist artist from Madrid,
López-García claimed that realism was not merely copying exactly what one saw. His sentiment deeply influenced Suwa. The sense of inertia often obscures our perception of the work. Superficial appearance
offers only visual pleasure. Only by integrating visual appearance with holisticness and abandoning old habitual ways of perceiving the world through experience and concept can we engage with the new sensory world created by Atsushi Suwa.