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Maria Taniguchi

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Clock Maria Taniguchi’s

Painting Time Without Painting a Clock

Maria Taniguchi’s “brick paintings” are made from thousands of hand-drawn rectangular cells, each individually filled. She began the ongoing body of work in 2008, and individual canvases can require days, weeks or months of repetitive labour. At Singapore Art Museum’s 2026 exhibition Afterimage, these paintings appear alongside sculpture and video, making repetition, material and duration visible across several media. Taniguchi considers the paintings less as isolated objects than as parts of one continuing artwork.

I find that idea more interesting than the apparent grid itself. From a distance the paintings can look systematic, even machine-like. Close attention reveals slight changes created by a human hand repeating a task for an extraordinary amount of time. Nothing in the image represents time directly, yet time is everywhere in it. The surface is almost an accumulation of hours. Instead of depicting duration, Taniguchi makes duration become material.

https://www.singaporeartmuseum.sg/en/art-events/exhibitions/maria-taniguchi-afterimage

#MariaTaniguchi #PhilippineArt #ContemporaryPainting #SingaporeArt

singaporeartmuseum.sg Maria Taniguchi: Afterimage | Singapore Art Museum Maria Taniguchi: Afterimage is the first monographic exhibition of the acclaimed artist presented by a Singaporean institution.
Maria Taniguchi

Painting Time One Rectangle at a Time

Maria Taniguchi’s ongoing “brick paintings” are built from thousands of small hand-drawn rectangular cells, individually filled with paint. Some of the canvases become enormous, yet their structure comes from an almost modest repeated action. Afterimage, at Singapore Art Museum until 22 November 2026, is the first monographic exhibition of Taniguchi presented by a Singapore museum and brings these paintings together with sculpture and video. The rectangles are not mechanically printed. Their subtle differences accumulate across days, weeks and sometimes months of work. Taniguchi considers the paintings individual parts of one continuing artwork rather than isolated compositions. I like what that does to repetition. From a distance the surface can appear systematic, almost architectural. Up close, the system becomes a record of labour and duration. Nothing dramatic needs to happen from one cell to the next. Time becomes visible precisely because the gesture changes so little.

https://www.singaporeartmuseum.sg/en/art-events/exhibitions/maria-taniguchi-afterimage

#MariaTaniguchi #PhilippineArt #Painting #SingaporeArt

singaporeartmuseum.sg Maria Taniguchi: Afterimage | Singapore Art Museum Maria Taniguchi: Afterimage is the first monographic exhibition of the acclaimed artist presented by a Singaporean institution.