AIFA’s first exhibition of the winter season in Verbier features two emerging Japanese artists, Mayu Kunihisa and Kansai Noguchi, combining paintings with ceramics under the theme of "Free-Forms". Both artists belong to an emerging movement that revisits traditions of controlled shapes' proportions into contemporary forms. Two distinctive illustrations of a Japanese contemporary art scene in constant evolution, finding its own way, between tradition and modernity.

As Mayu Kunihisa uses her whole body obtain the desired shapes, it erases the distance, and creates a special relationship between the canvas and her; to the extend that she knows when her work is completed at the time she starts to feel a change in this singular connection. 

This series of works created by using her whole body and the centrifugal force to propel her arms strokes to eventually result in painted layers is called “Wit-Wit”.

Mayu Kunihisa's art finds its origin in her interest for the theory of proportions and symmetry, highlighted in the drawing the Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci, itself based on the work of the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius. She uses her own body as a pair of compasses, the breadth of her half-circles is dictated by her own size and the movement of her arm’s strokes. Her entire body participates in the creation’s process, resulting in a special connection between the artist and the canvas itself as if she would become one with the painting. At the time she feels the connection starts to fade, she knows the work is completed.

She picks her works’ colours depending on her mood at the time she starts painting as an illustration of the importance of spontaneity in her creation process. Stemming from mathematical theories, her work is in direct connection with her freedom of body movements and the impulsion generated by her artistic emotions. The arcs of circles stacked in a plane square canvas generate several dimensions of depth in her works, explicitly perceivable through the “Wit-Wit” series displayed at the gallery.

Kansai Noguchi creates art pieces in a variety of shapes and textures, working with different types of medium, from clay to prints, by way of ink paintings. His aesthetic is often described as modern classical, with a limited color’s palette usage.