“”HBeAg,” 2010, paper collage, mat board, ink on paper, 40.6 cm x 101.6 cm. Image courtesy of the gallery.
Just a few paces away from Yuka Contemporary, the Hiromart Gallery is showing abstract paper collages by Croatian-born, New-York based artist Zdravko Toic. The works of view reference surrealism and constructivism, reviving the spirit of the mid-career Wilfredo Lam and early Naum Gabo. The cut paper portions compete with the inked cores of the work.
The exhibition will run through November 14.
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Untitled No.25, 2008, gelatin silver print, 50.8 x 61 cm, edition of 12. Image courtesy of the gallery.
There is a new addition to the NADiff a/p/a/r/t— the MEM gallery. The gallery has been established in 2003 in Osaka, and has recently relocated to Tokyo. Their inagural exhibition at NADiff showcases the recent work by two Beijing-based photographers RongRong and Inri, a couple that met in 1999 and embarked on a productive personal and professional collaboration. After 2000 the two became something of an art brand, opening, in 2006, the Three Shadows Photography Art Centre which contains a library, a gallery, dark rooms and artist residencies. The fourteen works on view blend personal life with social statements, oscillating between the timeless and the current.
The show will run through October 22.
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My review of Yuuki Matsumura’s show “Almost Dead Sculpture” held at Take Ninagawa gallery earlier this summer is now out in print in the October issue of ARTFORUM.
Installation view with Untitled (Double Center Line Construction), 2010, acrylic on wood with wire and glue, 14. 75 x 11.75 in. (upper left) and Show Some Horns, 2010, oil enamel on linen with wood, 9 x 14.5 x 2 in. (lower right). Image courtesy of the gallery.
MOTUS FORT has moved to a new space, not too far from their old location in Higashi Kanda. Their inaugural show is Tokyo debut of a Brooklyn based artist Jim Lee whose work is described by Jeffrey Chiedo as “painting hybrids that reflect [Lee’s] quirky brand of humor an present themselves as abstract solutions that slip in and out of recognition.” Indeed, the works on view seem to function as hermetic objects as well as some sort of meta-commentary on objecthood. Lee’s brand of punk Constructivism sits well in the new MOTUS FORT; his art does not look “displayed,” instead, becoming a part of the gallery.
Installation view with A Space Between, 2010, acrylic on wood with graphite and oil enamel, 8 x 16 x 4.5 in. Image courtesy of the gallery.
The show will be on through October 16th.
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Maoya Kishi
backronym 1, 2010
mixed media
50 x 50 x 127 cm
Last weekend the four galleries of the Shirokane art complex opened their next round of exhibitions. Kodama gallery presented, for the third time, Maoya Kishi’s installations. The new show—backronym—contains a selection of Kishi’s mixed media nonrepresentational sculptures with just a hint of kinetics in them.
Two floors above, at the Yamomoto Gendai gallery, Masakatsu Takagi had a two room video installation. The larger of the rooms contained three channel projection of a rather interesting and intensely visceral animation Ymene. Takagi’s oneiric pyrotechnics contrast with Kishi’s constructions in its emphasis on the random.
Taku Anekawa, mixed media, episode.7 moro
Somewhere in between these two shows is Nanzuka Underground’s new exhibition of Taku Anekawa’s embroidery books and large format collages. Just as Kishi, Anekawa pieces together the fragments (in his case, pieces of fabric and machine embroidery) to form his own ideosincratic narrative.
The fourth opening reception was held at the London Gallery, one floor above Yamomoto Gendai. Unlike its three neighbors who show only contemporary works, London Gallery features old Japanese art, although does so surroundings designed by none other than Hiroshi Sugimoto himself. The screen in the photo above is most certainly worth a visit to the Shirokane complex.
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Kohei Nawa is one of the young Japanese artists whose work is successfully promoted by Scai the Bathhouse gallery. The 2010 is forming to be something of an annus mirabilis for Nawa: he is participating in the Busan Biennale, as well as representing Japan at the 14th Asian Art Biennale Bangladesh. His current projects range from collaborations on mobile phone applications to public art installation in Odaiba. In addition, he is planning to open a new studio in Kyoto from where he will implement and supervise his various undertakings.
Last night’s opening at the Scai was one of the best attended I have seen in a Tokyo gallery so far. Among the works on view were the centerpiece PixCell-Double Deer and its head-only version. The first gallery had a wrap-around drawing installation, more drawings were displayed in the larger gallery and upstairs.
The show will be on through the end of October.
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