We’re loving the strangely beautiful paintings by Koshiro Kihara, who blends three-dimensional forms with abstracted concepts and ideas. The Japanese painter and his twin brother Kenshiro Kihara both exhibit fascinating work, and we’re particularly struck by Koshiro’s bold use of hue and material, conjuring up textures like Jell-o, glass, and more.

The use of shading and shadow bring a real dimensionality to the work, bordering on hyper-realism.

See more of Kihara’s work on his website. Via Juxtapoz:

I would like to explore the boundary between “abstraction” and “figuration” by coexisting these two opposing elements on a single canvas. In my work, there exist a number of “abstract” and “figurative” elements with different vectors in various senses, and their complex intertwining blurs the boundary between the two.

 At the same time, they also contain such dichotomies as “fact” and “fiction,” “moment” and “eternity,” “two-dimensional” and “three-dimensional,” “original” and “copy,” “natural” and “artificial.

 I move back and forth between “abstract” and “figurative” and various other dichotomies in my work. What I want to express is both and neither. The dichotomy can be easily expressed in words, but it is the boundary between the two that has an appeal that words cannot fully express, and for this reason, I believe there is a necessity for me to create paintings.

-​Koshiro Kihara

Author

Ben VanderVeen is the founder and editor of Moss & Fog, one of the web’s longest-running visual culture destinations. Since 2009, he’s been finding and framing the most beautiful, surprising, and thought-provoking work in art, architecture, design, and nature — reaching over 325,000 readers each month. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

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