#TTTOP

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Lot 620
  • 620

Tomita Naoki

Estimate
60,000 - 80,000 HKD
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Description

  • Tomita Naoki
  • View (T.O.P)
  • executed in 2016
  • oil on canvas

Provenance

This is a commissioned work created especially for #TTTOP. The artist has generously agreed to donate a significant share of the hammer price of this lot to the Asian Cultural Council in addition to the portion of profits that Sotheby’s donate for all lots in this auction.

Catalogue Note

View from the T.O.P

In View (T.O.P) (Lot 620), acclaimed young artist Tomita Naoki transforms an Instagram post hand-picked by T.O.P into an exquisite oil painting. Specially commissioned for the sale, the painting exemplifies Tomita's uncanny ability to instill magic and vitality into the ordinary and quotidian. The young artist is renowned for his virtuosic replications of photographic images that constitute a unique brand of figurative abstraction. His thick big strokes of pigment dissolve into gestural abstraction when viewed up close; a few steps back, however, a clear-cut image emerges, almost photorealistic in precision. A tactile exuberance emanates from the quiet nondescript scenes of everyday life, conjuring up a rich and alluring visual experience. The present lot thus offers a twice-reconstructed outlook of an ordinary city street, first through the lens of T.O.P's smartphone, then via Tomita's singular and accomplished painterly expression.


Artist Biography

Tomita Naoki (b. 1983, Japan) graduated in Fine and Applied Arts from the Kyoto University of Art & Design in 2012 and completed a master’s degree in oil painting at Tokyo University of the Arts in 2015. Tomita is attracting increasing attention for his paintings that use thick layers of oil paint to depict suburban scenes, the facades of stores without tenants, and young people without regular jobs. Tomita presented a solo exhibition in 2015 as part of the Project N series at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, and the same year received the Founder’s Award in the CAF Art Awards from the Contemporary Art Foundation. He is currently one of the most exciting young artists in Japan’s art scene.