Inoue Minoru was born in 1970.

He entered the painting department of Tokyo Zokei University, but dropped out after one year. He went to France to study painting.

 

After returning to Japan, he began to create paintings with a strong awareness of "contemporary art," a term that was being discussed at the time as new forms of expression emerged one after another, but in his own words, he "did not feel like he was painting his own pictures.

He felt that the year 2000 marked the end of an era, and he decided to quit "being a contemporary artist," which had become a kind of half-obsession, and to paint what he wanted to paint, the way he wanted to paint it.

His work since then has become one in which he thoroughly eliminates the artifice of "making pictures," even though he finds challenges in the process of creation and works diligently to overcome them.
He paints only the act of "painting" the roadside grass and weeds that he has snapped pictures of, and he does not make any corrections or adjustments to the overall image.
His paintings created in this way have an unobtrusive impression but an unobtainable core strength.

In these days when there is so much discussion about de-anthropocentrism and post-humanocene art, it is interesting and even exciting to see how Inoue has somehow found his way into "contemporary art," which he had tried so hard, only to be pushed back and eventually abandoned.

 

This exhibition will feature a selection of Minoru Inoue′s work currently on view on the WallsTokyo website.
We hope you will take this opportunity to visit the gallery.