Japanese artist Nobu Fukui’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” at Stephen Haller Gallery

NEW YORK, NY.- Stephen Haller Gallery presents an exhibition of dynamic new work by Nobu Fukui, collage paintings vibrant with invention Fukui’s work reads as non-objective painting at a distance, yet on closer observation intrigues with surprising imagery that suggests narrative. The eye plays across the surface of his work as if watching a video game in giddy visual delight. Paint, collage, three-dimensional beads: these are some of the ingredients of this exciting work. Benjamin Genocchio in the New York Times wrote: “In fact, some works are so densely layered that they are a bit like bubbling cauldrons of imagery. It is part Pop Art, part potpourri…”

Fukui’s exhibition title is from Billy Joel’s baby-boomer anthem: a chronology of popular images with charged associations. And Fukui’s work makes brilliant use of the instant recognition of iconic popular imagery: a shorthand for the tropes of our daily lives gathered from art magazines, anime and cartoons, news, and popular culture.

There has always been a push-pull in Fukui’s collage-based paintings of the last few years – a sensation of almost falling into the celestial spaces of the early series, or of being drawn in to the densely packed imagery of his Art in America or Superheroes series. In this quicktime of social media our shorthand of texting and images accelerates. Some of these new works include focal points which draw the attention of the viewer in like a vortex. Fukui’s distinctly fresh approach creates a kind of Pollock-like frenzy of color, re-inventing action painting with a Hadron Collider of images.

Fukui has always grounded his collage paintings in a first layer of newspaper which he leaves visible, wrapped around the sides of the work. This grounds his work in the quotidian texts and visuals of our daily lives – the currency of exchange – the detritus of the collective unconscious that has become ever more universal in the social networks of our contemporary life.

Born in Japan, Nobu Fukui lives and works in New York.

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