岡﨑乾二郎個展：超ダサくて、面白くない、気取った描き方 Solo show by OKAZAKI Kenjiro: a painterly process which is pretentious, dull and sucks

Listen to Jerry Saltz!
https://www.instagram.com/p/CR4pXXqDoGV/

Recent global art news mentioned the L.A. gallery Blum & Poe, which will newly represent two artists from Japan: YANAGI Yukinori 柳幸典 and OKAZAKI Kenjiro 岡﨑乾二郎.
Same-age Yukinori-kun embodies the classical, cutting-edge artistic practice with an intelligent, subtle execution process, a fascinating recontextualisation of the socio-historical experience in Japan. One of my favourite artists, indeed. Strongly recommending you to stay focused on his next, internationally curated exhibitions!
Whereas I doubt if Mr. Blum & Mr. Poe, who recently dumped MURAKAMI Takashi 村上隆,

米国ギャラリー Blum&Poeのアーティスト・リストから外された村上隆
Takashi Murakami Had Been Erased From American Gallery Blum & Poe’s Artists’ List
https://art-culture.world/articles/takashi-murakami-blum-poe-村上隆/

will get any progressive impetus via Italy-influenced Okazaki’s pitture mezzo-metafisica di cacofonia.
When I visited the exhibition “Kenjiro Okazaki” @ at Takuro Someya Contemporary Art in 2016, the art dealer tried hard to convince me in appreciating Okazaki’s originality. Thank you for your efforts, Someya-san 染谷さん.

Kenjiro Okazaki
10 November – 11 December, 2016
Takuro Someya Contemporary Art
https://tsca.jp/ja/exhibition/kenjiro_okazaki/#works

At that time, I restrained myself from writing a harsh critic on that exhibition, as in February 2015 he had just opened his new gallery in Minami-Azabu, Tokyo.
Now, as 5 years passed and Okazaki expanded his gallery network, the circumstances changed and I can put off my velvet gloves regarding Someya-san.

Kenjirō Okazaki
TOPICA PICTUS / La Cienega
July 17 – August 14, 2021
Blum & Poe, Los Angeles
https://www.blumandpoe.com/exhibitions/topica_pictus_la_cienega

Through my practice as a painter and my critical eye, I can hereby state, that Okazaki lacks of an original painterly attitude. An overly pretentious appearance, camouflaged with a breeze of pseudo-literature, which sucks. Déjà-vu, extremely dull, literally a generic derivative decorative crapstraction. If he would proclaim that his art practice is purposely purposeless, I could still show some empathy. However, as he teaches art to a young generation of wanna-be artists and writes books, I was carefully researching his output. Checking several of his texts, which are written amateurishly, I noticed that he is not capable in putting together his topics in a stringent, logical academic way. A fiasco of writing by Okazaki.
Furthermore, the academic in me discovered several wrong historical facts, black holes, narrow perspectives and wrong conjunctions, all fabricated by Okazaki. Because he forcibly eliminated, ignored important literature and art historical names. Obviously, – as they didn’t fit into his “scholarly” conclusions. We often can find this kind of pattern in Japanese semi-academic books.
I may hereby give you one example of Okazaki’s chaotic, self-righteous, pretentious writings. As he ignores Asian countries (especially India, Indonesia and China) art history’s lineage as a Japanese (!), his catastrophic, damaging practice continues terribly. Shame on discriminating Okazaki!
“Abstract Art as Impact – The Concrete Genealogy of Abstract Art”, which nonetheless got him the “Minister of Education Award for Fine Arts” 平成30年度（第69回）芸術選奨文部科学大臣賞（評論等部門）in 2019 (lol).
http://abstract-art-as-impact.org/en-text.html
Sometimes, Okazaki works as a curator and a critic (AICA member), as well. I assume he wants to be defined as an artist, contextualised by scholarly, arty writings and sophisticated, arty curatorial practice.
Which personally I really don’t care, referring to my manifesto “FREE CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS IN JAPAN!”, announced at the MIZUMA ART GALLERY, Tokyo in 2001, later published in the book “Mario A The Japanese Artist” (Ronsosha, 2004).
Anyway, let’s return to Okazaki’s artistic practice…, why on earth, shouldn’t I recognise his fake copies from Middle Ages poems, see his mediocre works as an uninteresting, overexerted amalgam of Günther Förg, who died near my hometown in 2013, and the sculptural works by Lygia Clark (1920-1988) from Brasil?
As the Japanese audience isn’t familiar with Förg and Clark, we may forgive…
Nevertheless, I wonder what the reception at the Blum & Poe gallery will be.

Let’s finish with a message, coming straight from Los Angeles, to Okazaki:
I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art
I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art
I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art
I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art
I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art.

2021/7/10
Mario A 亜 真里男

The following 2 works are one set.

ここに載せた写真とスクリーンショットは、すべて「好意によりクリエーティブ・コモン・センス」の文脈で、日本美術史の記録の為に発表致します。
Creative Commons Attribution　Noncommercial-NoDerivative Works
photos: cccs courtesy creative common sense

---