Hidekazu Ishikawa's mixed media work has a Rauschenberg-like freedom, bringing disparate materials together into discordantly beautiful compositions. Though he works in digital prints, collage and assemblage, Ishikawa sees painting as the foundation of his practice. His objects and images have painterly expressiveness and they connote a range of sentiments, from whimsically lighthearted to nostalgically aged and austere. Even his roughest assemblages have tenderness to them, suggesting an appreciation of the life and death process that brings both freshness and decay.

Ishikawa gives each element of his compositions equal space and import―a collaged image has as much visual weight as a painted flower―and his work has a strong, autonomous energy that suggests its self-confidence.

Hidekazu Ishikawa, who was born in Tokyo, studied at West Hills College in the United States and then returned to Tokyo where he studied at Tokyo Institute of Art and Design. Ishikawa has been exhibiting since 2004. He currently lives and works in Tokyo.