A big man stands there, the owner, trying to recognize himself among the tables and chairs.
Above the bar, the long glass cradles a sickly image:
the owner, greenish, his features smudged, jaundiced and fat in his aquarium.

On the other side, behind the window, the owner again slowly melting in the first light of the street.
This must be the silhouette that has just set the room in order; all that remains is for it to disappear.
In the mirror flickers the reflection of this ghost, already almost entirely decomposed; and beyond,
growing ever more hesitant, the endless throng of shadows:
the Owner, the owner, the owner…
The Owner, a mournful nebula, drowned in his halo.

(The erasers. Alain Robbe Grillet)

Tenki Hiramatsu (b. 1986, Wakayama, JP) lives and works in Berlin, Germany.

He studied at Nihon University in Tokyo and later at the Staatliche Kunstakademie Karlsruhe under Daniel Roth and Marcel van Eeden.

Hiramatsu’s painting practice exists at the intersection of abstraction and figuration, featuring enigmatic, often solitary figures within abstract landscapes. His chromatic palette ranges from soft ochres to deep earthy browns. Beneath the apparent simplicity of his compositions, his works, imbued with gentle melancholy, invite prolonged contemplation.

Hiramatsu’s work has been shown at Galerie Marguo, Paris (FR), Barbara Seiler Galerie, Zurich (CH), Half Gallery, New York (US), Sebastian Gladstone, Los Angeles (US), as well as Fondation Fernet Branca (FR) and M+M Gallery, Hong Kong (HK). His paintings are included in the collections of Credit Suisse and Zurich Insurance, and he was awarded the Kunstpreis der Werner-Stober-Stiftung in 2022.