Kenichi Hoshine

New York-based artist Kenichi Hoshine’s paintings are characterized by a fluid melding of figural elements and painterly, free-form gestures that evoke a spectrum of moods and narrative possibilities. Inspired by a wide range of subjects—from film and television, to theatrical sets, to found imagery—Hoshine’s practice is grounded in the experiences and occurrences of his daily life. Expressed through the formal vocabulary of abstraction, these seemingly common images and scenes take on newfound emotionality and a sense of underlying story. In this way, Hoshine’s paintings feel at once familiar and foreign, with the representational components providing critical touchstones for the viewer while evading any clear definition.

While Hoshine’s early work incorporated a variety of materials, including charcoal, tea, beeswax, oils, and acrylics, his paintings have, over the last several years, become increasingly pared down. In his most recent works, Hoshine leverages the speed with which acrylic paint dries to experiment with the effects of layering and erasure. By physically scraping, covering, layering, and editing his paintings, Hoshine is able to more fully examine notions of revelation and obscurity—themes that have long been critical to his practice. At the same time, his use of a limited number of materials has infused spontaneity into Hoshine’s approach, yielding a wider range of gestural actions and effects into his work.