First monograph on Koichi Enomoto’ s paintings from 2020 to 2023. Sampling and fusing motifs from all times and places, Koichi Enomoto has depicted stories from ancient times to the present day with an overloaded information in realistic and cartoonish style. After the coronavirus pandemic since 2020, he has shifted his focus to the visible things that live in the present, manipulating the techniques to portray “modern” cities and people. The “light” of the title refers to the light that flashes through when Enomoto captures subject from “seeing” it. The artist states that it can be said that the creation of paintings is also a process of designing light.The light of the cities with flickering images overlaps to the light in shade of stories that humanity has spun through religion and technology, like as expressed in Enomoto’ s past manga work “In the Light”, which evokes the atomic bombing. The light that shines through these shadows is the light that is emanating from the commonplace life, culture, love, and friendship of our time, which sometimes become repetitive and banal, universalized and extinguished. The artist tries to preserve the light they emit in his paintings. In addition to plates of the works, the book also includes texts by the artist, and essays written by Alex Gartenfeld, Irma and Norman Braman Artistic Director of ICA Miami and by Fumiko Nakamura, senior curator of the Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka. Designed by Daisuke Kano.
