Superpartner is pleased to present, How to Catch the Reflection of the Summer Garden on the Pond  池に映る夏の庭の様子を捕まえる, a solo exhibition by Motoko Kikkawa. Featuring a series of highly intricate watercolour and ink paintings and a new wall-based ceramic and kelp work, the exhibition also introduces an exciting new body of paintings that extends Kikkawa’s signature works on paper into expanded scale and new material processes.

Reflecting a marked development in Kikkawa’s practice, each of these new paintings begins as an original watercolour and ink drawing, before being digitally traced by hand, enlarged, cut in aluminium by laser and then again repainted and finished by hand. This sequence of translation and return results in a suite of visually dynamic works.

Presented floating slightly off the wall, the new paintings emit a soft, luminous chromatic presence while their detailed cut forms cast subtle shadows that activate the surrounding space. The works occupy the gallery walls with a powerful sense of calligraphic gesture and rhythm.

Kikkawa’s intricate and intuitive brushed lines and forms often suggest landscape, flora, fauna and mythical creatures, drawing on aspects of her Japanese heritage and associated artistic traditions.  A key point of reference is the highly influential Chōjū-jinbutsu-giga (literally “Caricatures of Animals and Humans”), widely regarded by many scholars as a precursor to manga and often described informally as “the first manga.”  This highly renowned group of four emakimono picture scrolls is housed at Kōzan-ji temple in Kyoto

Motoko Kikkawa is a multidisciplinary artist based in Ōtepoti Dunedin whose practice spans drawing, painting, sculpture and experimental sound.  Born in Tokyo and relocating to New Zealand in 2004, Kikkawa has exhibited widely throughout the country and her collaborative performance projects have been presented at festivals, public and private galleries and artist run spaces.  Kikkawa was recently awarded the Hynds Foundation Crucible Arts Residency, as well as the Music and Sound Artist in Residence in the inaugural Asian Artists Fund’s residencies and fellowships programme to support new work in New Zealand.