2016 Catalogue Archive

In the early 1960s, Shuji Mukai’s innovative use of an invented, nonsensical visual language gained him entry into the groundbreaking Gutai group. Mukai painted his pictographic signs on 2-D assemblage works, as well as on the interior surfaces of architectural spaces, most notably in his Modern Jazz Café “Check” (1966) where he covered the walls, furniture, dishes, and people in a café. In this recent work, Mukai covers a torqueing geometry with his symbols, creating a dizzying impression of the modern information age. Straight-from-the-tube, squirted symbols hang across the composition, further complicating the chaotic space. Mukai continues to make his architectural interventions, and his work has been included in numerous group shows in Japan and abroad.