The Salon by NADA and The Community

In Tabata’s representative oil painting series, “one way or another,” Tabata paints a single motif across two panels, intentionally misaligning them to complete the work. This deliberate shift creates new dynamics and a sense of spatial compression within the painting, prompting viewers to reconstruct the original form in their imagination. Particularly in works depicting the sky, as the two panels align into a single rectangular shape, the clouds and sky become compressed into one frame. Viewers are encouraged to envision the original expanse, reassembling the once vast sky in their minds, all while sensing its never-ending openness. This evokes the concept of an “ever-unfolding sky” that continuously eludes completion. Tabata’s works awaken an awareness of the “misalignments” and uncertainties we often overlook in our daily lives, offering new perspectives and raising questions for the viewer. His depictions of the sky go beyond a mere replication of nature―they are explorations of new possibilities in perception, space, and painting itself.