Kotaro Nukaga Presents Kour Pour’s ‘Poly Painting’ Series
Los Angeles-based artist Kour Pour draws on his upbringing in Exeter, England — where he grew up around his Iranian father’s carpet shop — to explore how art and images travel across borders. For his latest solo show at Kotaro Nukaga Roppongi, Pour expands on his signature Poly Painting series, using the traditional structure of woven carpets as a vehicle to layer global patterns, histories and motifs onto a single canvas.
Incorporating traditional Japanese patterns like seigaiha (cresting waves) and asanoha (hemp leaves) with Persian arabesques and Middle Eastern cloud forms, Pour paints intricate designs that mimic the look of textiles. For Pour, this distinct style is a way to depict how these designs moved along trade routes over centuries. By scraping away layers of paint, exposing underlying colors and intentionally leaving sanded surfaces and reconstructed seams visible, his paintings mirror the way history itself is pieced together from fragments, lost details and conjecture.
