RICHARD TAITTINGER GALLERY is pleased to present MIDNIGHT SPAGHETTI, the second New York solo exhibition with world-renowned Japanese artist Aki Kuroda ( 黒田アキ) (b. 1944). Consisting of 26 paintings and 1 NFT produced between 2000 and 2022, this new exhibition demonstrates the reverence simplicity of Kuroda’s work through its color palette and technique. MIDNIGHT SPAGHETTI is curated by Yoyo Maeght whose friendship with Kuroda has lasted 40 years since the artist’s first exhibition in France – Les Ténèbres – at Galerie Maeght in Paris in 1980.

As a symbolic approach, Kuroda utilizes the visual repetition of intimate characters, including his famous bunny seen in the piece RABBIT (2015), faces seen in the piece MEDUSA (2019), floral arrangements, and versions of caryatids. Kuroda pulls from the exchange of body and energy, bringing the inside out and the outside inwards. A simple illustration of this exchange happens when his caryatids occasionally morph into portals or openings to other realms.

Despite the depth of his themes, Kuroda plays with lightness and whimsical ease, which is evident in his expressive strokes and vivid hues. Kuroda’s blues and yellows bring deep luminosity into his artworks. This exhibition sketches a new story and strips itself of the color wheel, finding homage in the neutrals – deep blacks and subdued whites.

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