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Akira Yamaguchi "TOKIORE(I)MIX"
Ginza Maison Hermès
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Artists
Akira Yamaguchi
In the upcoming forum, Maison Hermès will feature an exhibition by Akira Yamaguchi, one of the most notable contemporary artists today. Born in 1969, Yamaguchi studied oil painting at Tokyo University of the Arts where he earned his B.A. and M.A.. His style blends together the everyday and fantasy with unique imagination and a sense of humor, based on sophisticated skill and deep knowledge of Japanese art history and classical Japan decorative paintings (Yamato-e). In 2001, Yamaguchi was awarded the top prize of the Taro Okamoto Memorial Award for Contemporary Art. In recent years, he has expanded his realm of activity from art exhibitions to books, newspaper illustrations and public art.
Born in Hiroo, Tokyo, Yamaguchi grew up in Kiryû City in Gunma prefecture before moving back to Tokyo to attend university. The motif of Tokyo, which he began to depict while still in university, evokes the comicality/ humorous elements of the everyday urban landscape. Yamaguchi perhaps expresses a sense of yearning for his hometown by vividly tracing familiar landscapes that are now gone, filling the works with humor, sweet melancholy, and the mood of walking through an ancient city.
Comprised of mainly new works, the upcoming exhibition at Le Forum features not only Yamaguchi's signature bird's-eye view perspective works inspired by the Japanese artistic genre of "Scenes In and Around Kyoto" (Rakuchu rakugai zu), but also a series of works depicting telephone poles and outmoded shacks that collectively evoke the streets of Tokyo. We take part in the artist's nostalgic vision as we throw ourselves into the landscape that is utterly faithful – with only a shift in the temporal axis – to the aesthetics that emerges out of Tokyo, a city that reaches back to the Meiji and Edo periods. Yamaguchi's world feels at once familiar and far away, ceaselessly retaining yet transcending time ever so lightly.
TOKIORE(I)MIX (Tokyo-Remix), TOKIORE(I)MIX (Temporal-Remix), TOKIORE(I)MIX (Sporadic-Mix).
Just as we are puzzled by the play of words in the title, the viewers' senses are also "mixed" up upon entering this exhibition, as Tokyo emerges in a familiar yet strange temporal layering of past, present and future.
[Image: ©YAMAGUCHI Akira, Courtesy Mizuma Art Gallery]
Born in Hiroo, Tokyo, Yamaguchi grew up in Kiryû City in Gunma prefecture before moving back to Tokyo to attend university. The motif of Tokyo, which he began to depict while still in university, evokes the comicality/ humorous elements of the everyday urban landscape. Yamaguchi perhaps expresses a sense of yearning for his hometown by vividly tracing familiar landscapes that are now gone, filling the works with humor, sweet melancholy, and the mood of walking through an ancient city.
Comprised of mainly new works, the upcoming exhibition at Le Forum features not only Yamaguchi's signature bird's-eye view perspective works inspired by the Japanese artistic genre of "Scenes In and Around Kyoto" (Rakuchu rakugai zu), but also a series of works depicting telephone poles and outmoded shacks that collectively evoke the streets of Tokyo. We take part in the artist's nostalgic vision as we throw ourselves into the landscape that is utterly faithful – with only a shift in the temporal axis – to the aesthetics that emerges out of Tokyo, a city that reaches back to the Meiji and Edo periods. Yamaguchi's world feels at once familiar and far away, ceaselessly retaining yet transcending time ever so lightly.
TOKIORE(I)MIX (Tokyo-Remix), TOKIORE(I)MIX (Temporal-Remix), TOKIORE(I)MIX (Sporadic-Mix).
Just as we are puzzled by the play of words in the title, the viewers' senses are also "mixed" up upon entering this exhibition, as Tokyo emerges in a familiar yet strange temporal layering of past, present and future.
[Image: ©YAMAGUCHI Akira, Courtesy Mizuma Art Gallery]
Schedule | Feb 11 (Sat) 2012-May 13 (Sun) 2012 Opening Hours Information
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| Fee | Free | ||||||
| Venue | Ginza Maison Hermès | ||||||
| Location | 5-4-1 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0061 | ||||||
| Access | Direct walk from exit B7 at Ginza Station on the Ginza, Marunouchi and Hibiya lines. 7 minute walk from the Hibiya exit of Yurakucho Station on the JR Yamanote and Keihin-Tohoku lines. | ||||||
| Phone | 03-3569-3611 | ||||||
| Related images | Click on the image to enlarge it |
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