DOCUMENT is pleased to announce the opening of Picture(s), the first solo exhibition by Japanese artist Kazuhito Tanaka at the gallery’s Lisbon location.

In Picture(s), Tanaka continues his exploration of the convergence of painting and photography across over a dozen mixed media works: equally formed by abstract paintings and collages made of torn chromogenic photographs, the works in the exhibition suggest a series of dialogues from their two distinct materialities. On a first level and despite the differences in media, both portions of the plane are arranged through layering, variations of size and color, as well as flat and bulky applications. At this level, an initial conversation on resemblance/difference, followed by color, is established. Beyond material properties, the juxtaposition of two media with densely packed histories maintains a dialogue that is relevant to this day, yet it does so free of its characteristic tensions. Additionally, each work offers a commentary on the latency of an image, on its potential to reveal itself to viewers through different registers of opacity.

Are the vivid photographic effects of chromogenic prints the inspiration behind the paintings? Or, quite the contrary, are the collages attempting to follow and mimic the paintings’ unique rhythm? In this relationship of equals, the answer could simply be “both.”

Kazuhito Tanaka (b. 1973, Saitama, Japan) lives and works between Kyoto and Fukuoka, Japan. He graduated from Meiji University in Tokyo in 1996 and from the School of Visual Arts in New York in 2004. Recent solo exhibitions include Galerie Kandlhofer, Vienna, Austria (2023); Gallery PARC, Kyoto, Japan (2023); KANA KAWANISHI GALLERY, Tokyo, Japan (2022); Paris London Hong Kong, Chicago, USA (2022); Gravity and Light, soda, Kyoto (2020), Self-Dual, Gallery PARC, Kyoto (2019), Trans / Real -The potential of Intangible Art vol.7 Kazuhito Tanaka, gallery αM, Tokyo (2017), pLastic_fLowers, Maki Fine Arts, Tokyo (2015). In parallel to his artistic practice, Tanaka works as an independent curator and is the director of soda, an artist-run space in Kyoto. His recent curatorial projects include Navid Nuur -MONO NO AWARE NESS-, soda, Kyoto, Japan (2023); 50 seconds, soda, Kyoto, Japan (2022); and NEW INTIMACIES -WILD WILD WEST-, Gallery PARC, Kyoto, Japan.