XVA’s current show brings together two different artists with mathematical and spiritual approaches to their work

Shinji Ogawa,Circle and Reflection in the Water 2014, pencil on paper. Courtesy of XVA Gallery

Two identical girls in Victorian dresses stand in the centre of the frame staring blankly ahead. By the very nature of their duality and expressionless faces, they give the viewer a chill. Coupled with the backdrop of three arched doorways, the scene is somehow reminiscent of a horror movie.

The artist Shinji Ogawa lets out a chuckle when I express this to him.

"Like The Omen?" he says with a laugh, obviously aware of the illusion he has created. The image is from a series of pencil drawings called Perfect World, a tongue-in-cheek title that questions the very essence of our existence with very simple additions to already familiar images. A subtraction, an addition or a multiplication of an object in the painting makes it an altogether different image.

What is fascinating is the simple, almost mathematical way the Japanese artist approaches the works. After The Omen quip, Ogawa shows me the initial sketch he made for the painting.

It consists of a long horizontal line labelled A and two shorter vertical lines in the centre, both labelled B.

“This idea came to me in a dream,” he explains. “The image is a very long landscape with two objects in the middle. I created the landscape by combining aspects from many old postcards I picked up in flea markets, and the girl character, which I repeated, also came from one of these cards. It is familiar imagery presented in an unfamiliar way.”

The piece, titled Circle and Reflection in the Water, is the image that gives the exhibition its name. In the Water is a joint show at the XVA Gallery in Dubai's Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood where Ogawa's work has been paired with that of the Korean UnKyung Hur.

Hur explores lines of energy through geometric drawings that are created using traditional Korean lacquer inlaid with mother of pearl. Her work is vastly different from the intricate pencil drawings that Ogawa presents, but below the surface there are several similarities.

“Her work is also based on mathematical logics so, although the appearance is totally different, the work complements each other. My pieces may look complex but they are actually quite simple, they are about layers and the relationship between objects,” says Ogawa.

Other pieces from Perfect World include Pisa 5, where the leaning tower of Pisa stands next to another identical tower on the same tilt. There is also Venice 1 and Venice 2, which depict St Mark's Square from both sides of the Grand Canal – identical to the real city other than the fact that the Campanile, or the Bell Tower, appears twice.

“There is no real meaning in the world, other than that which we attach to it,” says Ogawa. “So by altering the landscapes in such a way, we change the meaning and force ourselves to think about the way we look at things.”

Absent from the Dubai show is Ogawa's Without You, in which he copies classical western paintings such as Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper as well as traditional Japanese paintings, but then removes central characters. It is a collection that gave Ogawa prominence in Japan and now, thanks to his gallery Standing Pine, is starting to capture the attention of the world.

• In the Water runs until January 31 at XVA Gallery, Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood. For details visit www.xvagallery.com