Press Release

The new paintings have a visual layering that requires excavation. Your eye is initially led into compositions that reference a metaphorical dream, or a metaphysical vision. In many of these works, Oyatani gracefully marks the surfaces with small strokes of sometimes bizarre imagery in bright hues, often against dark monochromatic expanses of architectural details.

Raised in Japan and residing in New York for several years, Oyatani has been inspired to create hybrid works that touch on both Eastern and Western traditions. His use of color, composition, form and subject matter are a fine blending of his natural inclination to integrate cultures and their visual vocabulary.

Through numerous build-ups of thin layers of oil paint, Oyatani’s work combines elements of abstraction and representation, pattern and grid, and surface and illusion. Upon further inspection, several layers begin to emerge, creating an almost hyper real space where the transition between dreams and reality crisscrosses brilliantly into an altogether unexpected state of awareness.

Oyatani was born in Kobe, Japan in 1972. Although mostly a self-taught artist, he studied at the School of Visual Arts and the Arts Student League in New York. In addition to Kim Foster Gallery, he has had solo exhibitions at Bentley Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona. His work has been reviewed in ARTnews and Art & Antiques, and he is in many private collections.