KOSAKU KANECHIKA is pleased to present the exhibition “GROUP SHOW: 5 ARTISTS” from December 20th, 2024 to January 18th, 2025.
The show presents work by Yutaka Aoki, Takuro Kuwata, Ryu Takeda, Emi Mizukami, and Dan McCarthy.

Yutaka Aoki uses acrylic paint to create abstract works with substantial impasto to study light and its organic, three-dimensional qualities. Aoki observes light as a multi-faceted element that grants information on the world and is also an indicator of the passage of time. His paintings oscillate between two- and three-dimensionality, and respond not only to materials and production processes, but also to specific elements in their environment, including the relationship with the audience’s gaze, the passage of time, and the conditions of the exhibition space. Light imbues his work with an intrinsic richness, providing a visual experience that awakens the natural human senses desensitized by our increasingly digital lives.

Takuro Kuwata has rapidly expanded the possibilities of ceramic art by creating works of an unparalleled nature that have been exhibited globally in Brussels, London, and New York. Kuwata’s contemporary visual language, which utilizes techniques of traditional Japanese pottery such as ‘kairagi’ and ‘ishihaze’ in a novel manner, has garnered international acclaim. Situated at the heart of Japanese ceramic artistry, Kuwata’s studio in the Mino region of Gifu retains history and techniques dating back to feudal Japan. Inheriting the traditional tea ceremony aesthetic of wabi-sabi, his works embrace imperfect beauty and natural forms that are celebrated in the preservation of a rustic, unrefined elegance. Through dialogue with the environment, history, nature, and time, Kuwata fuses together elements of tradition and modernity.

Ryu Takeda’s paintings evoke the imagery of accidental stains or scars. He remarks that the memories and characteristics of the rural forests from his childhood are expressed not only through his sight, but through sound, smell and touch. Takeda, who often compares the act of painting to an excavation, paints as if to unearth the unconscious realm that has been lost through verbalization and classification.

Emi Mizukami creates paintings that exist as an accumulation of temporal actions. Filling her canvases with imagery derived from old and contemporary mythologies and folklores from around the world, as well as historical fables and tragedies, the artist repeatedly paints new images over them, covering each layer with pigments mixed with sand. The multi-layered paintings born from this approach do not offer a static viewing experience to the human retina, but rather evoke various imaginations, such as the passage of time in ways unbeknownst to man, reality, and virtuality.

Dan McCarthy has exhibited his work globally throughout a career that has spanned over three decades. In addition to his two-dimensional works, such as his paintings and drawings, McCarthy produces his iconic “Facepot” series, which features facial motifs on ceramic vessels, with vivid colors, tremendous expressiveness, a familiar feel to them, a sense of primitiveness, and an immediacy that evokes the hand of the artist. In McCarthy’s work, these elements merge together to create an immediate experience that is not only visual but has a physical, and even emotional, effect on the viewer.

Yutaka Aoki presents three recent works including a large painting, and Takuro Kuwata showcases two works shown in Japan for the first time. Ryu Takeda will be displaying 4 recent paintings, Emi Mizukami will be presenting a new work alongside a recent painting, and Dan McCarthy exhibits recent sculptures. We cordially invite you to our upcoming group show including Yutaka Aoki, Takuro Kuwata, Ryu Takeda, Emi Mizukami, and Dan McCarthy at KOSAKU KANECHIKA.