Whitestone Gallery Taipei is honoured to present Floating Zoo - the solo exhibition of Yuji KANAMARU. The exhibition will be on view at the gallery in Neihu from January 15 - February 16, with an opening reception in the presence of the artist on Saturday, January 18, from 6 - 8 pm.
KANAMARU’s paintings embody rather than merely represent the expression of modern universality and explore ancient Indian philosophy in innovative ways.

He started to paint animals purely out of fondness. After reading the Hindu mythology, he then added elements of human life on his animals. His works are richly coloured, simple compositions that contain various animals with symbolic meaning, such as wise elephant, inherent ancient fish and long-lived tortoise. The expressionless animals invite viewers to a sensational encounter, allowing them to project their feelings into the paintings.
As the artist notes, “I want to create a vessel into which the viewer can project their feelings, essentially creating a forum for the exchange of feelings between myself- the artist-and other people.

Floating Zoo introduces the works that are developed from his 2008 series Collage Animals - including the series of Memory Town and Universal Tree that continue the artist’s exploration of fantastic imagery.

Notably, while KANAMARU regularly depicts his animals and structure in overlapping spaces and configurations, in some of the larger works, such as Gear Planet, the formation rendered by four equal parts. The aspherical world has been formed in the centre of the painting, with elephants in different scales floating around the planet. Such a concept of a round place is the artist’s philosophy. The works also testify to the range of ways KANAMARU applies colour in his art. One work, Ancient 55, featuring ten colours as background and ancient fishes, tells about the flow of time and the accumulation of memories.