Exhibition/event has ended.
Yoko Kawamoto "for the present"
Nanzuka Underground
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Artists
Yoko Kawamoto
This is Kawamoto's first solo exhibition at a Japanese commercial gallery for Kawamoto, featuring about 20 oil paintings which Kawamoto has been working on over the past three years.
Kawamoto, a self-taught artist, started painting in the late 1990s. In 1999, she won "The Choice Grand-Prix" at a competition organized by the magazine "Illustration". She then went on to organize her own solo exhibition entitled "Ordinary Day" (Rocket, Tokyo) in 1999 and had an opportunity to have a show, "Drifter", at ATM Gallery in New York in 2007. Day after day, Kawamoto carefully develops her canvases one by one, visualizing her take on everyday life, where the mundane turns out to be a source of surprise and wonder. Her honest attitude toward painting, unswayed by theoretical approaches or academic training might be part of the attraction of her work.
At this exhibition, Nanzuka Underground will exhibit a series of paintings that reveal Kawamoto's unique take on mundane scenery that can be found anywhere in suburban areas of Japan, such as scrapyards, piles of industrial materials, an abandoned car in the mountains, and derelict factories or harbors. Although Kawamoto calls these motifs "overlooked scenery," they possibly symbolize "another face" of modern Japan, where the mentality of "scrap and build" (destroying old buildings to build new ones) persists in an attempt to portray this country as the most modernized place on Earth.
Kawamoto, a self-taught artist, started painting in the late 1990s. In 1999, she won "The Choice Grand-Prix" at a competition organized by the magazine "Illustration". She then went on to organize her own solo exhibition entitled "Ordinary Day" (Rocket, Tokyo) in 1999 and had an opportunity to have a show, "Drifter", at ATM Gallery in New York in 2007. Day after day, Kawamoto carefully develops her canvases one by one, visualizing her take on everyday life, where the mundane turns out to be a source of surprise and wonder. Her honest attitude toward painting, unswayed by theoretical approaches or academic training might be part of the attraction of her work.
At this exhibition, Nanzuka Underground will exhibit a series of paintings that reveal Kawamoto's unique take on mundane scenery that can be found anywhere in suburban areas of Japan, such as scrapyards, piles of industrial materials, an abandoned car in the mountains, and derelict factories or harbors. Although Kawamoto calls these motifs "overlooked scenery," they possibly symbolize "another face" of modern Japan, where the mentality of "scrap and build" (destroying old buildings to build new ones) persists in an attempt to portray this country as the most modernized place on Earth.
Schedule | May 16 (Sat) 2009-Jun 13 (Sat) 2009 Opening Hours Information
Opening Reception May 16 (Sat) 2009 18:00 - 20:00 | ||||
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| Fee | Free | ||||
| Website | http://nug.jp/exhi/2009/04/yoko_kawamoto_for_the_present.html | ||||
| Venue | Nanzuka Underground http://www.nug.jp | ||||
| Location | 3-30-10 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0001 | ||||
| Access | 8 minute walk from exit 5 at Meiji-jingumae Station on the Chiyoda and Fukutoshin lines, 10 minute walk from the Takeshita exit of Harajuku Station on the JR Yamanote line. | ||||
| Phone | 03-5422-3877 | ||||
| Related images | Click on the image to enlarge it |
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