“I have always found images that are obscured or fragmented to be more interesting than ‘complete’ pictures,” says Brooklyn-based artist Kenichi Hoshine. His portraits blend abstraction and heightened realism, suggesting moods and narratives through a considered blend of colour, detail and movement.
Born in Tokyo, Hoshine grew up in New York and completed his BFA at the city’s School of Visual Arts. He has lectured there, also at Parsons School of Design and Pratts, and has worked commercially for clients including Barnes and Noble, Chase Bank, Ford Motors, Prevention Magazine and More Magazine.
Hoshine’s fine arts production encompasses a range of media, including charcoal, oils, acrylics, wax and tea. Photography is one source of inspiration, and the artist has cited figures such as Uta Barth and Hiroshi Sugimoto as influences, while more recent works seem to draw on abstract expressionist painting. Bold palettes and visceral brushstrokes combine to produce intriguing implied stories.
Selected by Saatchi Gallery for exhibition at Pulse New York in 2008, Hoshine has shown widely across the USA and in 2016 presented a two-person exhibition in Paris, France. He has also been chosen as a semi-finalist in the prestigious Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition for the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery.
