Loring Taoka’s playful acrylic and gouache paintings employ an abstract style akin to hard-edge painting and minimalism. Taoka’s exploration of perception in his artwork parallels his experiences as a queer person of color.
Artist Statement:
I think a lot about how I move through space and how I carry myself. I think constantly about who I am and how my existence inhabits an ambiguous state. Being a queer, Japanese-American has required me to be constantly engaged with perception and negotiation.
Using basic geometry allows me to engage with ubiquitous forms while questioning how they are defined; a circle is a circle and its definition is strict, but does our perception of an implied circle make it a circle? Shapes are distorted to that threshold to occupy a transitional moment, they are simultaneously seen as what they were and are. These visual cues require us to question what we are seeing as well as the potential of the image.
I am interested in looking and seeing, asking questions about how we look and see, and the fundamental questions of looking and seeing. What are we looking at? How do I understand what I am seeing? And how are images read and understood?
Loring Taoka is an Arkansas-based visual artist utilizing a variety of approaches and techniques to explore notions of vagueness and authenticity. Taoka’s work questions the act of perception and what happens when we are presented with precise, yet ambiguous information. His work has been featured in numerous venues such as Western Exhibitions (Chicago, IL), CES Gallery (Los Angeles, CA), and New American Paintings. Taoka’s work is represented by Galleri Urbane in Dallas, TX.
On exhibit December 11, 2020 - March 6, 2021
Monday: 10:00AM – 8:00PM
Tuesday: 10:00AM – 8:00PM
Wednesday: 10:00AM – 8:00PM
Thursday: 10:00AM – 8:00PM
Friday: 10:00AM – 6:00PM
Saturday: 10:00AM – 6:00PM
Sunday: 10:00AM – 6:00PM
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