Tokyo Diptych 2019
Artist in Residence at 3331 Arts Chiyoda
Iwamotochō, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
April-May 2019
“I lived in Tokyo for a period of fifteen months ending the summer of 2018. I painted outdoors and contemplated the city, which had a great impact on my painting. For this residence I will look to readdress the work I made during that time, now about one year ago, by making a single imposing painting. Using this framework of revisiting I hope to better understand the responses I have to Tokyo and why they may be useful for my painting.” (edit from proposal)
アーティスト・イン・レジデンス：AIR ３３３１
東京都千代田区岩本町
四月ー五月 ２０１９
”２０１８年の夏まで東京に15ヶ月の間滞在した。屋外で絵を描き、街について考えた経験は、自分のペインティングに大きな影響を与えた。今回のレジデンスでは、約1年前の滞在当時に創作していた、印象的な約２４０cmの大きさの絵を、あらためて描くつもりである。今回の再訪の機会を活用することで、私が東京に抱いた反応と、それらが私の絵に役立つであろう理由をより理解したいと考えている。”
(see Postcards and Nakameguro to view previous projects refered to in the above statement)
The current title is a quote:
“Self-reorganizing ‘Aliveness’ … without any of those models and images (which never work anyway) of the world as it is or should be.”
Aliveness -aka the gestalt- is a summation of the city. Every utopia has a model or an image, and by definition none of them are ever achieved. This utopia is simpler.
One year prior to the residency while living in Tokyo I thrived on a solipsistic practice and more simplistic criteria for my painting to suit what was for me an overwhelmingly visual experience. An experience of cultural silence: beauty through ignorance and a free flowing analysis. I tried to lean into those impressions.
3
4
In the detail below the soft and smooth acrylic ground meets with the surrounding parts of the painting which retain a rougher canvas texture. Visual crowding in the final painting tends to follow those blocked-out areas that have extra smooth acrylic material layered on. In that way some islands of detail were laid out before any paint was used or colors added.
5
(1)
“...self reorganizing ‘Aliveness’ … without any of those models and images (which never work anyway) of the world as it is or should be.”
^
oil on canvas
(84 x 54) x 2
2019
(2-3)
[street view 1, 2] “...self reorganizing ‘Aliveness’ … “
perpendicular to Kanda river
2019
(4)
[detail 1, 2] “...self reorganizing ‘Aliveness’ … “
oil on canvas
84 x 54
2019
(5)
[center right detail] “...self reorganizing ‘Aliveness’ … “
oil on canvas
84 x 54
2019
exhibtions: ︎
NYC Year One 2018 - 2019
The last painting during the first year in NYC was the largest. There are two titles: one is an ASCII picture and the other is Doorway Interstice.
A note from when the painting was finished:
[
When you hit a wall it doesn’t eliminate space you just stop moving.]
Continuing from that note, there are ways in which space is linked to motion just as often as to light. I had a faint interest in what color could create of this motion. To represent a slight motion in a shallow space, or become the index of it. As for the picture title, it takes the space and places it in a repeating structure.
︎ Doorway Interstice
︎ Paper Landscape
2
The larger paintings above are from early 2019,
and the next three are from late 2018 ~
ending with individual descriptions of those three
4
5
(3) ^ pictured above
“Life in Hennepin County where Lucifer Deals Death to the Unbelievers”
An autobiographical idea. A portrait of frustrated thoughts about my past in Minnesota. It’s also a joke when taken with the title. A serious joke.
(4) ^ pictured above
“That Thing that is Personal and Dramatic to You in the Guise of a Home Depot”
A sarcastic admission that neither the idea nor the inspiration are very clear. I love warehouses (and Home Depot) but what do I study–the precise location, or the internal sense that has drawn me to it? Explore the love or explore the source for it? Of course it’s both, but also eventually neither.
(5) ^ pictured above
“1/8000 Scale Model of a Wharf with Pier and the Green Katamari”
Marks, I think, should involve the physical mass of the canvas. So much of my work uses place, space, observer-in-location, and things like that. The title gives an explanation about what the image can’t be using terms of scale. Scale is a limited tool where size is concerned. It’s a painting about this problem.
︎ Fluorescent and Incandescent Wedges
6
(1)
Doorway Interstice (and details)
oil on canvas
72 x 74
2019
(2)
Paper Landscape (and detail)
oil on canvas
38 x 48
2019
(3)
Life in Hennepin County Where Lucifer Deals Death to the Unbelievers
oil on canvas
30 x 22
2018
(4)
That Thing That is Personal and Dramatic to You in The Guise of a Home Depot (and underpainting)
oil on canvas
24 x 32
2018
(5)
1/8000 Scale Model of a Wharf with Pier and the Green Katamari
oil on canvas
30 x 26
2018
(6)
Fluorescent and Incandescent Wedges
oil on canvas
16 x 21
2019
exhibtions: ︎
中目黒 / Nakameguro Studio 2017-2018
I lived in Tokyo for a year and a half during 2017 and 2018. I was able to exhibit my work in March of 2018 and shortly after made the big decision to move to New York.
All paintings made on canvas were made in the studio in Nakameguro during the last six months of my stay. They were shown alongside observational paintings from the first year (see Postcards).
The following is adapted from notes about the paintings written just before the exhibition:
[
There are near-solitary periods when walking in urban neighborhoods. There’s a lot of looking about and movement: the direction of the eye and moving of your feet at a regular pace —those small scales of time. A quiet drama. Rhythmic and cut with shadows. Here there are bunches of walls.[
Imagine a replica of the place. With a trick of the mind it’s psychologically distant. That beautiful attachment, of signs, of knowing, is somewhere gone. The function of the place is still the same and people treat each other no differently. It’s indistinguishable, without personal value or sense.
2
3/3 Painting Exhibition
White Room, 3F Fujiya buidling
1-3-9 Kamimeguro, Meguro-ku, Tokyo
March 3 - 9, 2018
︎ installation
4
︎ The Way to Ibuyara
5
(1)
Tokyo Yellow (L)
oil on canvas
13.5 x 18
2017
Large Postcard (R)
oil on canvas
29 x 35.5
2017
(2)
Flat Not Grey (underpainting from 2018)
oil on canvas
14 x 18
2019
(3)
Tokyo Yellow
oil on canvas
13.5 x 18
2017
(4)
installation images
3/3 Painting Exhibtion
2018
(5)
The Way to Ibuyara
oil on canvas
77 x 51.5
2018
exhibtions:
3/3 Painting Exhibition, Just Another Space, Tokyo Japan 2018
Tokyo/Seoul Postcards
1, 2
copied from notes at the time:
[
I’m always thinking of those quiet city streets —when they’re quiet. Traversing the calm, the quiet gives a drama. The in-between staging of a layered functional space. That is the most powerful visual expereince I’ve had since living in Tokyo.]
When visiting neighborhoods in Tokyo, I often wandered around and found that some places had the look or atmosphere of being vacated, like a small moment inbetween everything else had passively accumulated.
3, 4, 5
6
I had some criteria for choosing my spot to paint. After the graphic or spacial geometry, I avoided spots that would have too many patterns on flat surfaces, small or recognizeable architectural details, or features close in the foreground from my seated position.
As a result, many of the locations painted have diorama-like conditions where a building or group of buildings are surrounded by open space from my perspective. Large, open, flat areas joined against dense architecture, including modern and contemporary buildings, was ideal for me. Tokyo was a gold mine.
7
8, 9
I made two from this series while I spent a month in Seoul ︎
The process of the postcards is visible: the selection of spacial charateristics, molding shapes and censoring objects as it’s layed out, the rough-hewn look of the small papers, and the even, shallow, light of the images.
The minute to minute labor is more strenuous than my work in studio and the physical discoveries of so many real locations is engaging for my practice. That process has been a fixture of my painting.
12
(1, 2)
江東 Koto (2 of 9)
oil on paper
approx. 16 x 13 cm
2017
(3-5)
新宿３ Shinjuku III (4 of 9)
oil on paper
approx. 16 x 13 cm
2017
(6)
新宿４ Shinjuku IV (7 of 9)
oil on paper
approx. 16 x 13 cm
2017
(7)
新宿１ Shinjuku I (1 of 9)
oil on paper
approx. 16 x 13 cm
2017
(8, 9)
Seoul: Mapo (6 of 9)
oil on paper
approx. 16 x 13 cm
2017
(10, 11)
目黒 Meguro (9 of 9)
oil on paper
approx. 16 x 13 cm
2017
(12)
gallery images:
新宿２ Shinjuku II (3 of 9)
oil on paper
approx. 16 x 13 cm
2017
Seoul: Seodaemun (5 of 9)
oil on paper
approx. 16 x 13 cm
2017
中野 Nakano (8 of 9)
oil on paper
approx. 16 x 13 cm
2017
exhibtions:
Room For One Book, Sage Hill Farm, Leesburg VA 2019
3/3 Painting Exhibition, Just Another Space, Tokyo Japan 2018
MN Still Life
1
I lived in Minnesota from when I was seven until I left for college in Rhode Island at eighteen. Following undergraduate, there was a brief period that I came back to Minneapolis and made this work.
I was interested in doing observational work but my work space was very small and the weather made it difficult to paint ouside, so I built a still-life diorama to paint from.
In the three years prior I had grown attached to monochrome grey-color landcapes (see Grey Spaces). In 2016 I was still in love with those paintings but the overly cooperative grey, white and brown diorama provoked interest in color.
4, 5
7
The goal was to search for a yet-to-be described abstract subject for the series through a still life arrangement and observational painting. Both at the time I made it and the time of this writing I think this work failed to develop any useful concepts.
Though this project has it’s value, these paintings mainly prompt me to reflect on what my life looked like in Minneapolis in 2016. I was isolated, without a plan, and not very happy.
I remember reading Pablo Helguera’s Education for Socially Engaged Art in studio and dreaming about getting involved in Minneapolis. By February 2017 I was leaving for Japan and had failed to make any lasting connections or arrange any activities during what would be my last year in Minnesota.
7, 8
(1)
Untitled 1 - 7
approx. 5 x 6
oil on paper
2016
(2, 3)
untitled drawings
approx. 16 x 19
oil on paper
2016
(4, 5)
Untitled 2 & 4
approx. 5 x 6
oil on paper
2016
(6)
“diorama”
found boxes, paper, board
2016
(7, 8)
Untitled 3 & 7
approx. 5 x 6
oil on paper
2016
exhibtions:
(works diplayed for a time at a coffee shop in Minneapolis, 2017)
David studies color using painting media, paper, printing, and digital tools as a way to explore abstract forms related to observation and architectural space, frequently excluding or avoiding figuration relating to the body.
David is interested in work that affects a deconstruction of the subtle ideologies and cultural feelings that obscure our cooperative human intellect and falsify meanings that arise from our society’s structure.
PHOTOGRAPHY SERVICES
︎ Accurate Artwork Photography
I specialize in photographing artworks using a professional digital color workflow for accurate documentation for all uses.
I always strive for accuracy and I want to be of service to those that need to accurately document their artistic endeavors to a high standard as they grow.
I started doing this work becasue I felt strongly about the need to solve these documentation challenges in my own painting studio practice. I’m familair with the difficulties of accurately communicating artwork details in a photograph. If you’re like me it can be hard knowing that your presentation is not a realistic match to the artwork you have on hand.
showcase the work you have, archive your activity, leave the right impression, and avoid the vulnerability of using a less than ideal set of images for marketing, portfolio submissions, and online interaction.
Related Services
If you have a unique project or require a service you don’t see listed here please contact me, many photography solutions are possible with the knowledge and equipment I have.
︎ Tabletop Product Photography (ecommerce, arts, design)
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︎ Video Capture (on-site video)
WORK SAMPLES
Sample images of oil paintings and paper collage:
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Examples of prints
Sample drawings & studio portrait for client David Torres (sunkeepers.art)
© 2022 David Eli Tompkins all images courtesy of the artists/institutions
LOCATION
I will bring my equipment to your studio/gallery/home in New York City. Please contact me to confirm that I can travel to your location. I have a location minimum and you should prepare space so that the artwork is reasonably accessible. Please continue reading for more information. I am based in Lower Manhattan.
IN STUDIO:
As an alternative you have the option of bringing your artworks to my home studio off Ave C in Alphabet City. Space is very limited in my home studio but if you have a small number of artworks that are no larger than 4ft each you can take advantage of the lower studio rate.
TYPES OF SUBJECTS
Easy access to artworks is important to save time. Please provide as much room as possible on either side of the work for lights. Laborious art handling such as unpacking and moving around large artworks may incur an additional charge.
FLAT
oil paintings and other paintings, drawings, prints, and works on paper
glare can be filtered by polarizing the light from reflections (unless raking light showing texture is preferred)
THREE DIMENSIONAL
installation and exhibitions, in-situ sculpture, and contextually situated artworks
some limitations exist based on my current equipment, I can’t provide backdrop materials at the moment
ARTWORK WITH SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
The following subjects may require more time and retouching:
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works behind glass or with highly reflective materials
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unstretched canvases
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large/long installations
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video art installations
PORTRAIT
I offer on location studio portraits to artists at a low rate which can often fit around a shoot schedule. Please inquire for details.
RATES
Day rates are available. All projects should be discussed in advance to confirm pricing. Basic corrections and color adjustment are included, plus any edits made during delivery period (24 hours). In most cases you will receive complete corrected files at the end of the shoot in the original format.
LOCATION RATE
140 location minimum and 35 dollars per hour after the first 2 hours
Equivalent to between 10 and 15 dollars per artwork
1 : 140, 2 : 140, 3 : 175, 4 : 210
5 : 245, 6 : 280, 7 : 315, 8 : 350
STUDIO RATE
35 dollars per hour with no minimum, at my studio
in-studio may not be an option for projects with large or numerous artworks please ask
1 : 35, 2 : 70, 3 : 105, 4 : 140
5 : 175, 6 : 210, 7 : 245, 8 : 280
DELIVERY
On the day of the shoot you will recieve Raw camera files via SD card or USB:
1. Original Raw files (Fujifilm RAF, AdobeRGB color) at a pixel image size of 6240 × 4160 pixels (composite images are up to 6x larger)
The following day (within 24 hours) you get 2 finished sets of all images via download link:
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If additional correction is needed new edits can be delivered within 72 hours or according to your needs. Please be advised that color-based corrections require in-person access to the artworks for accuracy.
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