18/09/2026
Plastic Trees, Rubber Plants
In Bitto’s newest solo presentation, nature is the elusive balm for the eye and soul. The title comes from “kachō fūgetsu” (花鳥風月), a traditional Japanese idiom that translates to ‘the beauty of nature’, but also the act of creating an aesthetic form such as painting or poetry inspired by it. The phrase is further broken down into four separate characters, those for ‘flower’, ‘bird’, ‘wind’, and ‘moon’.
The distribution of lush, verdant imagery in the works lure the viewer into thinking that they follow suit with this tradition of East Asian art - meticulous arrangements of beautiful, natural settings featuring plants and animals. Ironically, a closer look at the big paintings reveal the elements themselves as dupes of nature. They are given away by the spray cans littered along a painted imitation of a mountainside, polished ceramic birds collected over time to be admired privately, and reflective plastic balloons that carry light unnaturally. Bitto presents all of these uses of mimicry not in defense of the self - as seen with birds and insects, among others - but at the risk of one’s immense disconnection with the world. The subversion of the philosophy of kachō fūgetsu, is, for the artist, a representation of a capitalist reality on the ground - one that does not permit nature time to grow and unfurl its seasonal beauties, but one that sells us contentment with simulacra until the original is no more.
Bitto
August Skies, 2026
Acrylic on canvas
48h x 60w in
