Signed and dated verso

Ryoko Endo gestural abstract paintings are constructed with a controlled yet fluid mark-making, reminiscent of Japanese calligraphy. The artist layers exuberant marks, strokes, and dabs with a fluent touch. Endo’s paintings are built-up with opaque and translucent layers of acrylic paint; the varied thicknesses of brushstrokes and pigments create a striking dynamism. The artist’s lifelong study of chromatic relationships informs her bold approach to color and structure: her mentor Kaikuo Saito - a second-generation Abstract Expressionist, employed vibrant colors to create large, immersive canvases. Endo works at the juncture of meditative Sumi calligraphy and energetic Abstract Expressionism, producing saturated colorscapes that are both precise and expressive. Given the hybridity of the forms and traditions Endo channels, her work creates a visual experience that is simultaneously contemplative and charged, deliberate and spontaneous—loose in gesture yet anchored in formal discipline.

The frenetic composition of Chasing the Sun unfolds through a cascade of drips and streaks, dry and loaded brushstrokes, organic and orderly forms. Animated gestures and vibrant colors energetically combine. The tension between the diverse chromatic and structural elements results in an unrestrained vigor. Balanced by a rhythmic tempo of overlapping forms, the painting’s disparate features harmonize. Repeating colors (black, yellow, orange, purple, blue) and parallel forms (upward lines and horizontal strokes) thread through the work, tying it together and creating visual cohesion across the surface.