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Barbara Takenaga: Whatsis

DC Moore Gallery is pleased to present Barbara Takenaga: Whatsis, an exhibition of new paintings on view through
April 27, 2024. 

In recent years, Barbara Takenaga has explored the space between control and randomness, creating vast imagined spaces that evoke the interconnectedness of the natural world. Her new bodies of work continue this duality of fluidity and structure, while introducing graphic and geometric forms. Takenaga translates, recombines, and hybridizes these visual systems, reinterpreting them across cultures and generations.

Takenaga’s new paintings evoke at once the open expanses of the ocean, outer space, and the night sky, and the microscopic structures of cells. She begins her process with a liquid paint pour, allowing the physical forces of gravity and the properties of paint to create patterns as it rolls and settles. From these chance operations, she locates an internal structure to the composition, which she defines with labor-intensive brushwork.

In the major six-panel painting, Two for Bontecou (2022), imposed geometric edges interweave with the splashy, cosmic paint pour, creating a pulsing, shifting web. The painting is an ordered cacophony, a “big bang” explosion that mimics the entropic forces of nature.

For her new Translations series, Takenaga looked to Japanese ukiyo-e prints, interpreting forms and details from these images into her own visual language. Drawn to the spatial ambiguities inherent in the flat image of the print, these paintings reference familiar forms while placing our notion of those associations in question. The monumental five-panel work, Round Trip Time (2024), continues this process and maps out new terrain, hovering between organic and technological, futuristic and historical, surface and deep space.

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Alongside, 2024. Acrylic on linen, 60 x 140 inches

Alongside, 2024
Acrylic on linen
60 x 140 inches

Two for Bontecou, 2022  Acrylic on wood doors 80 x 144 inches

Two for Bontecou, 2022  
Acrylic on panel
80 x 144 inches

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Round Trip Time, 2024  Acrylic on wood panel 72 x 150 inches

Round Trip Time, 2024  
Acrylic on wood panel
72 x 150 inches

Alongside, 2024. Acrylic on linen, 60 x 140 inches

Alongside, 2024
Acrylic on linen
60 x 140 inches

Two for Bontecou, 2022  Acrylic on wood doors 80 x 144 inches

Two for Bontecou, 2022  
Acrylic on panel
80 x 144 inches

Round Trip Time, 2024  Acrylic on wood panel 72 x 150 inches

Round Trip Time, 2024  
Acrylic on wood panel
72 x 150 inches

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Cascade, 2023 Acrylic on linen 45 x 54 inches

Cascade, 2023
Acrylic on linen
45 x 54 inches

Blue Pour (Marcellus), 2024 Acrylic on linen 70 x 60 inches

Blue Pour (Marcellus), 2024
Acrylic on linen
70 x 60 inches

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Cirrus, 2023  Acrylic on linen 20 x 24 inches

Cirrus, 2023  
Acrylic on linen
24 x 30 inches

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Hi-Lo (RTT) , 2023 Acrylic on linen 42 x 36 inches

Hi-Lo (RTT), 2023
Acrylic on linen
42 x 36 inches

Red Turnout, 2024 Acrylic on linen 70 x 60 inches

Red Turnout, 2024
Acrylic on linen
70 x 60 inches

Barbara Takenaga, Two Falls, 2023. Acrylic on linen, 24 x 20 inches

Two Falls, 2023
Acrylic on linen
24 x 20 inches

Color Rising (Revised), 2023 Acrylic on linen 24 x 36 inches

Color Rising (Revised), 2023
Acrylic on linen
36 x 42 inches

Hummer, 2024 Acrylic on linen 70 x 45 inches

Hummer, 2024
Acrylic on linen
70 x 45 inches

Inquire
Double Vision (Bontecou), 2023 Acrylic on linen 36 x 42 inches

Double Vision (Bontecou), 2023
Acrylic on linen
36 x 42 inches

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Twin 1 (LB), 2022 Acrylic on linen 24 x 30 inches

Twin 1 (LB), 2022
Acrylic on linen
24 x 30 inches

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Red Black Stack, 2023  Acrylic on linen  40 x 24 inches

Red Black Stack, 2023
Acrylic on linen  
40 x 24 inches

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Translations (for Kiyonobu I), 2022 Acrylic on wood panel 12 x 10 inches

Translations (for Kiyonobu I), 2022
Acrylic on wood panel
12 x 10 inches

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Translations (for Kiyonobu II), 2023 Acrylic on wood panel 12 x 10 inches

Translations (for Kiyonobu II), 2023
Acrylic on wood panel
12 x 10 inches

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Translations (for Shuntei), 2023 Acrylic on wood panel 10 x 12 inches

Translations (for Shuntei), 2023
Acrylic on wood panel
10 x 12 inches

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Translations (for Kiyomitsu), 2023. Acrylic on wood panel, 10 x 8 inches

Translations (for Kiyomitsu), 2023
Acrylic on wood panel
10 x 8 inches

Inquire
Cascade, 2023 Acrylic on linen 45 x 54 inches

Cascade, 2023
Acrylic on linen
45 x 54 inches

Blue Pour (Marcellus), 2024 Acrylic on linen 70 x 60 inches

Blue Pour (Marcellus), 2024
Acrylic on linen
70 x 60 inches

Cirrus, 2023  Acrylic on linen 20 x 24 inches

Cirrus, 2023  
Acrylic on linen
24 x 30 inches

Hi-Lo (RTT) , 2023 Acrylic on linen 42 x 36 inches

Hi-Lo (RTT), 2023
Acrylic on linen
42 x 36 inches

Red Turnout, 2024 Acrylic on linen 70 x 60 inches

Red Turnout, 2024
Acrylic on linen
70 x 60 inches

Barbara Takenaga, Two Falls, 2023. Acrylic on linen, 24 x 20 inches

Two Falls, 2023
Acrylic on linen
24 x 20 inches

Color Rising (Revised), 2023 Acrylic on linen 24 x 36 inches

Color Rising (Revised), 2023
Acrylic on linen
36 x 42 inches

Hummer, 2024 Acrylic on linen 70 x 45 inches

Hummer, 2024
Acrylic on linen
70 x 45 inches

Double Vision (Bontecou), 2023 Acrylic on linen 36 x 42 inches

Double Vision (Bontecou), 2023
Acrylic on linen
36 x 42 inches

Twin 1 (LB), 2022 Acrylic on linen 24 x 30 inches

Twin 1 (LB), 2022
Acrylic on linen
24 x 30 inches

Red Black Stack, 2023  Acrylic on linen  40 x 24 inches

Red Black Stack, 2023
Acrylic on linen  
40 x 24 inches

Translations (for Kiyonobu I), 2022 Acrylic on wood panel 12 x 10 inches

Translations (for Kiyonobu I), 2022
Acrylic on wood panel
12 x 10 inches

Translations (for Kiyonobu II), 2023 Acrylic on wood panel 12 x 10 inches

Translations (for Kiyonobu II), 2023
Acrylic on wood panel
12 x 10 inches

Translations (for Shuntei), 2023 Acrylic on wood panel 10 x 12 inches

Translations (for Shuntei), 2023
Acrylic on wood panel
10 x 12 inches

Translations (for Kiyomitsu), 2023. Acrylic on wood panel, 10 x 8 inches

Translations (for Kiyomitsu), 2023
Acrylic on wood panel
10 x 8 inches