Nana Funo
Vessel That Never Leaks
2012. 4. 21st - 6. 2nd
Tomio Koyama Gallery 7th floor
opening reception 4.21. sat. 6:00 - 8:00pm
Artist Talk Tomio Koyama GalleryF4.21. sat. 5:00pm
» Introduction:
Matière is outstanding in Nana Funo’s work. She paints acrylic on the base, draws with pens, applies gesso to create stain and gradation, and adds motifs with acrylic paint again. These layers, produced by repetitive masking, embrace decorative patterns, animals and plants, figures, landscapes and written characters, and appear in incomparable texture.
Her delicate and repetitive motifs are like endless kaleidoscope that makes one feel almost dizzy. Both in a large painting of 4 m shown in her solo exhibition Who Knows the Stories (2009, Tomio Koyama Gallery Kyoto) and in 108 pieces of small paintings of 20 x 20 cm shown in Imagination on the Grass (2009, TKG Editions Kyoto), the intensity and concentration were the same, while the characteristic and depth of each painting varied. This indicates that Funo, who draws inspirations from the imaginary and fantastic worlds she has indulged since childhood, has unlimited capacity of imagination and strength of knowing how she can express them.
Funo’s drawing notebooks, other inspiration source, carry the same intensity. Like a diary, she keeps feelings in daily life and things that stay in her mind, all of which will potentially grow into paintings.
» Concept:
Inspirations fly away if not being kept by a pen or a brush. To hold it, one needs a receiver, like a vessel. Funo describes this in a conversation with an artist: If I don’t keep the things that are floating in drawing or paining, they will disappear. Nothing left. It feels like trying to scoop water with hands in a desert. Drips will soon disappear in the dry sand…I feel that I have always been looking for firm vessel that never leaks and keep things immediately.
The exhibition presents various paintings from large one over 5 m to small pieces of 20 x 20cm. Also the drawing notebooks described above, namely “vessel that never leaks”, will be also on the view for the first time at the exhibition.
» Artist Biography:
Nana Funo was born in 1983 in Shizuoka, Japan. She graduated from Fine Arts Department, Osaka University of Art, and received M.F.A. in Painting from Kyoto City University of Arts.
She held solo exhibition at Roppongi Hills Art + Design Store Space A{D (Tokyo) in 2010, and her major group exhibitions include Art Award Tokyo (Gyoko-dori Underground Gallery, Tokyo, 2008) and VOCA 2009 The Vision of Contemporary Art (The Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo, 2009). Her work is collected by Takamatsu City Museum of Art and the Japigozzi Collection. This is her third exhibition and the second solo exhibition with Tomio Koyama Gallery.
Mika Ninagawa
PLANT A TREE
2012. 4. 21st - 6. 2nd
Tomio Koyama Gallery 6th floor
opening reception 4.21. sat. 6:00 - 8:00pm
Artist Talk Tomio Koyama Gallery 6F FMika Ninagawa
» Concept:
This exhibition presents works from Mika Ninagawa’s photo book PLANT A TREE, published in 2011. The book (a limited edition of 700, numbered) is designed and edited by Satoshi Machiguchi, who also designed Ninagawa’s noir (2010), and is known for 40{1 PHOTOGRAPHERS PIN-UP (1995), which covers 40 photographers of his generation. Ninagawa usually gets involved in the editing process, but for the first time she left everything to Machiguchi.
In the series Ninagawa photographed cherry blossoms bloomed along Meguro river for only 3 hours one day in 2010. She captured flower petals falling, floating, and drifting away on the dark surface of the river. It gives a feeling of looking at them through tears, and wrings the viewer’s heart with the sense of fragility and conflict.
» Artist Biography:
Mika Ninagawa is born in Tokyo. She graduated from Graphic Design department of Tama Art University in1997. She lives and works in Tokyo. Ninagawa has won numerous awards, including the Grand Prize at the "7th Photography Hitotsuboten" in 1996, the Excellence Award at "The 13th Canon New Cosmos of Photography" in 1996, "The 9th Konica Photo Encouragement Award" in 1998, and the 26th Kimura Ihei Award in 2001. In addition to her career in magazine and advertising photography, she has published richly varied books of photography and directed a film SAKURAN in 2007. She is one of the most active and successful photographers at work today. She received acclaims worldwide for her photo book Mika Ninagawa (Rizzoli N.Y., 2010). She is holding a solo exhibition Mika Ninagawa at Urasoe Art Museum, Okinawa, Japan from February 24 to April 8. Her second film Helter Skelter (written by Kyoto Okazaki / stars Erika Sawajiri) will be released on July 14. This is her 5th exhibition with Tomio Koyama Gallery following the joint exhibition with Daido Moriyama in 2011 in Kyoto.
Tomio Koyama Gallery
Gallery hours; Tue. to Sat. 12:00pm - 7:00pm
Closed; Sun., Mon., & National holidays
Tel: +81-3-3642-4090
|
