Tadashi Hayakawa’s “Core of Life” exhibition takes us on a transcendental journey through the process of life, opening a window into his inner world and exposing the core of his artwork in an organic way that invokes serenity and acceptance at times but also triggers anxiety about the uncertain and unknown future.

 

The artist’s creation process has culminated in paintings where past, present and future fuse together through intense outbursts of fury, by stretching the physical limits of the canvas and giving rise to beautiful and poetic stories with each sensual brush stroke. By virtue of his paintings, the artist slowly pulls you towards his soul, to that intangible place where creation takes place and feelings reside. Accompanying the paintings is a carefully devised chronological timeline that connects Hayakawa’s past, present and future and highlights the most significant events from each time period of his life.  

 

Inherent in this chronological exploration is Hayawaka’s acceptance that life is finite and that he is coming to the end of his days. At the heart of this body of work is a simple yet powerful message –– one that allows viewers to reflect on their own existence and prepares them for the artist’s last breath, that moment where his life will become just a memory from the past and the soul will leave only to continue its own journey. 

 

The latter theme becomes evident on “Going Beyond,” a piece that can be interpreted as an aesthetic testament to Hayawaka’s own death, which was created by applying densely dramatic movements and unique tonalities that gave the painting a distinguishable aura.      

 

Other paintings are, however, more retrospective in nature and take us to the artist’s past where his childhood memories in Japan become the

central theme to be explored. Some are, too, a tribute to his ancestors or a way of honoring his passing and accepting his evolution into the next life.  

 

Taken together, these giant abstract canvases challenge the limits of the medium, but they also historicize some of the artist’s most wonderful personal stories and his connection and relationship to nature, his own culture, rituals and vivid experiences. And he achieves this in an astonishing fashion, by giving each feeling, color, shape and texture an opportunity to come alive through the canvas and merge matter and soul.