Trevor Shimizu's first show at Matthew Brown is a suite of new paintings, all made within the last year. Most are portraits or landscapes. One is an iPhone, silently playing The Dare's 2022 hit “Girls.”
The landscapes follow the cycle of the seasons, and the New York-based artist’s meanderings through them. One small canvas was set on an easel outdoors and left facing a dogwood and a sugar maple tree through a fall and a winter. It was painted with oil, leaves and sticks. Much of it was completed by the weather before the artist made a single gesture. Another portrays a panorama of the Hudson made from leftover paint from last show’s palette. Others are seascapes frothing with layers and the blurred outlines of harbor seals. Across all, Shimizu’s marks run confident and loose. They don't seek cover for every error or blankness.
The scale of Shimizu’s large landscapes evokes a field of vision. They imitate what you would see seated on a small square of wood, looking at a bush or out at the whole of the ocean. In other words, they are near-sighted, yet they feel whole. Relative to the vast places they describe, they are diminutive and myopic.
The portraits were made alongside the landscapes. They arrive from the same months, the same day-to-day passages. The titles allude to the situations. The situations are not explained.
Together, these transmissions from the thick of life depict an artist approaching the apogee, armed with the ease of an idiosyncratic hand. The kind earned from living past when purity, performance and gimmick give out.
Because soon, inevitably, the endings will outnumber the starts. For now, though, the artist seems happy enough to laugh at his own youthful tears (see: self-portrait). To draw close to his children. To stare at the trees as they too change.
Trevor Shimizu (b. 1978, California) lives and works in New York.
Select solo exhibitions and two-person exhibitions include Trevor Shimizu, 47 Canal, New York (2025); Preservation, art hall, Baltimore (2025); 2007-2017, Galerie Christine Mayer, Munich (2024); Past/Future, Modern Art, London (2024); Trevor Shimizu: Land/Time, The Ranch, Montauk, NY (2023); Edvard Munch/ Trevor Shimizu, Landscapes, VI, VII, Oslo (2023); Cycles, 47 Canal, New York (2023); Eco-Formalism, Green Gallery, Milwaukee, WI (2022); Luminism (American Art Style), Galerie Christine Mayer, Munich (2022); Yin-Yang, La Maison de Rendez-Vous, Brussels (2022); Hudson River and More?, Misako and Rosen, Tokyo (2021); Landscapes, 47 Canal, New York (2020); Masterpieces, Ken Kagami and Trevor Shimizu, curated by Emily Watlington, Anthony Greaney, Somerville, MA (2020); Trevor Shimizu: Performance Artist, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia (2020); Trevor Shimizu: Performance Artist, Kunsthalle Lisbon, Portugal (2019); Ken Kagami & Trevor Shimizu, Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo (2018); Paul Kos & Trevor Shimizu, Potts, Los Angeles (2018); and Trevor Shimizu, Galerie Christine Mayer, Munich (2017).
Select group exhibitions include Nocturnal, David Zwirner, Hong Kong (2026); Hello, the Roses, Hoffman Donahue, Los Angeles (2025); Chappy, Slip House, New York (2025); Miniotics, Pop Gun, New York (2025); Brick!, Amanita Gallery, New York (2025); Couch Paintings, CANADA, New York (2025); Ei Arakawa-Nash: Paintings are Popstars, The National Art Center, Tokyo (2024); Winter in America, Pop Gun, New York (2024); Shifting Landscapes, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2024); A Particular Kind of Heaven, Karma Gallery, Thomaston, ME (2024); Toward the Celestial: ICA Miami’s Collection at 10 Years, Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (2024); Back Box Theater, Clearing, New York (2024); Arcadia and Elsewhere, James Cohan, New York (2024); Landschaft, Galerie Khoshbakht, Cologne (2023); The Moth and the Thunderclap, Stuart Shave Modern Art, London (2023); Future Shock, Lisson Gallery, New York (2023); Minimalism-Maximalism-Mechanissmmm, Kunsthal Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark (2022); Accrochage: 15 years of MISAKO & ROSEN at The Green Gallery, Green Gallery, Milwaukee, WI (2021); Downtown Painting, presented by Alex Katz, Peter Freeman Inc., New York (2019); Artists I Steal From, curated by Alvaro Barrington and Julia Peyton-Jones, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London (2019); Michael Krebber, Win McCarthy, Josephine Pryde, Trevor Shimizu, group show curated by Matt Moravec, Galería Marta Cerva, Madrid (2018); Broadcasting: EAI at ICA, Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Philadelphia (2018); We Are All Cats, Karma International, Zurich (2015); and Queens International 2012: Three Points Make A Triangle, Queens Museum of Art, Queens, NY (2012).
Shimizu participated in the 2014 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2014).
His work is in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Aïshti Foundation, Beirut; Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit; Institute of Contemporary Art Miami, Miami; K11 Art Foundation, Hong Kong; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; and University of Chicago Booth School of Business Art Collection, Chicago.