Los Angeles born, but San Fransisco based artist Hugo Kobayashi, whose painting studio is in Oakland, has a new show opening at the Hang Art gallery today.
In his third solo exhibition with HANG ART, Hugo Kobayashi continues to materialize his observations of societal obsessions through meticulous rendering. He carefully explores how drastically the perception of gambling or chance has changed over the years and how its pervasive nature now causes fun to overshadow risk. Shown together, the body begs one to wonder how the scratchers’ owners were affected. Rather than implying a specific story, shown together the body leaves the viewer to wonder how the scratchers came to be.
The show, called Nothing For Something, features hyper realistic oil paintings of crumpled lottery tickets and scratchers. Each painting measures by 16" x 32" and I love every single one of them.
Nothing For Something:
Easy Go:
Losing My Cool:
Spinout:
Uneasy:
Red Ink and Blue:
In The Red:
The show runs from May 1 through May 15th. The Opening Reception will take place Thursday at the gallery May 6, from 6-8pm.
HANG ART
567 Sutter St.
San Francisco, CA 94102
Paintings can also be purchased online here.
About the artist:
Hugo Kobayashi's vertical canvases are filmic, skillfully rendered, and often autobiographical. A native of Southern California, he spent four years as a comic strip writer for LA View, which gave him a strong grasp of the narrative potential of visual images. He draws inspiration from comics and films, and the tall, narrow format of his work invites the viewer to read his images from top to bottom like unreeling filmstrips.
Kobayashi's goal is to combine the graphic techniques of cartooning and design with a painterly brushstroke and representational approach, crafting powerful, unified paintings that can both tell personal stories and comment on the world at large.
Born in Los Angeles in 1962 and reared in Orange County, Kobayashi has been making images since he was five. He earned his bachelor's degree in studio art from the University of California at Berkeley in 1983 and his master's degree from Hunter College in New York in 1986. Hugo has participated in exhibitions at the Berkeley Art Center, the Keyson Gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and the Falkirk Cultural Center in San Rafael.
See all of his work at his site.