Exhibitions
Past
Yuki Ideguchi & Cyoko Tamai Exhibition
Mar. 21 (Thu./holiday) to Mar. 27 (Wed.)
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Yuki Ideguchi was born in 1986 in Fukuoka, Japan, graduating from Tokyo University of the Arts with BFA and MFA in Japanese painting(Nihonga), and is currently based in New York. He has had many exhibitions in Japan, France, India, Poland, Mexico, Korea, China, Taiwan and the United States. Since he was a student, he has copied and studied numerous works of regardless of what period and where from Caravaggio to Hokusai. In the documentary film "British Museum Present Hokusai" screened in 2018, he appeared as one of the artists who influenced by Hokusai with David Hockney and others. On canvas, he uses Japanese painting(Nihonga) materials, acrylic paint, spray that used for street art together, and continue to produce figurative paintings with full use of the drawing technique accumulated. In addition to his own work presentation, he also curates many exhibitions. There was an exhibition “Evolving Traditions-Paintings of wonder from Japan” which Idegucgi curated in the United States in 2018. It was introducing the transition of Japanese paintings(Nihonga) since the Meiji period. Also, the exhibition was mentioned by Washington post art review. His works were described as " Ideguchi’s own paintings include bonsai-like branches, Chinese scholars and waves that recall Hokusai’s famous one. But the pictures’ sturdy outlines and gleaming hues seem better suited to the side of a bus than a sheet of handmade paper. The artist takes iconic shapes from commercial art and word balloons (with bilingual text) from comics. Reached after an amble through genteel older artworks, Ideguchi’s pictures administer a mild future shock." in the article. After experiencing works in various countries, he realized the discontinuation of recognition of Japanese art between Meiji and modern times. And while doing reinterpretation of classical paintings, he aims to create new paintings covering contemporary situations and the past, including motifs and painting materials.
Cyoko Tamai was born in 1987 in Kōchi prefecture, graduating from Tokyo University of the Arts with a BFA in Music and an MFA in Painting, and is currently based in New York. Her work has been featured in over a dozen solo and group exhibitions in NY, Japan, Poland, and Hong Kong. Tamai is the recipient of several grants from Japan Society NY residency program in 2014, as well as the artist overseas training system promoted by the Agency for Cultural Affair in 2017. Her painting consists of myriads of fine lines on Japanese washi paper, exploiting the unique character of its paper fiber. She uses Chinese sumi ink, steel dip pen with extra fine nib and washi paper for her work. The lines in the painting literally float up against the surface of the paper, and make her work into a ‘semi-three dimensional’ piece. She wants to capture life that is continuation of each moment in a more visible way: this has been her theme of artwork.
For this show, we will exhibit latest contrastive 40 works by Ideguchi and Tamai. He blends traditional Japanese techniques with contemporary imagery and themes, and She made these monochrome works using and reinterpreting the Metropolitan Museum Collection as a previous reference. The artists are scheduled to come to Japan for the exhibition on March 21-27th. We hope you will join us for this exhibition.