Gallery Yamaki Fine Art is delighted to announce a solo show of Susumu Koshimizu as the 12th anniversary exhibition of the gallery, from Saturday, 23rd June to Friday, 27th July. The exhibition introduces the artist’s latest works using one of his signature material, wood.
*Opening party with the artist: Saturday, 23rd June 17.00-19.00
KOSHIMIZU was born in 1944, in Uwajima, Ehime. One of the leading figures of Japanese contemporary art and the representative artist of Mono-ha that was an avant-garde art movement from the late 1960s to early 70s. KOSHIMIZU has used wide-ranging things (materials) such as wood, iron, stone, water, ceramics and paper, all of which are familiar to us. He exhibits how the essence of the things or the relationship between themselves are changed by adding a process of hand-work on to the vision or eyes that Mono-ha had always put emphasis on. Thus, he questions what are “the things”, what are their characteristic nature and their fixed idea.
One of the very important series of KOSHIMIZU, “From Surface to Surface” has been being developed since the artist’s first solo show in 1971 and now in the collection of Tate Modern in the UK. The recent phase of this series appears a set of wood pieces of the same size and shape whose surface are curved various geometric patterns by an electric saw. All the pieces are of the same wood but each of them looks distinctively different. Like this, the artist succeeded in showing the wide possibilities of materials. The coming exhibition will feature the latest version of this series. KOSHIMIZU further pursues the multiplicity of the surface of things so as to realize 2D reliefs. At the same time, KOSHIMIZU recently discloses as he is more conscious of color than of sculpting and curving patterns. He is also the artist who values Japan original so much as to repeatedly use traditional Japanese color such as shinsha (color of cinnabar), gunjou (deep blue), rokushou (blue green). Another series of reliefs are colored with these traditional pigment in order to show KOSHIMIZU’s revolutionary attempt to use “color” as the material.
In the traditional Western art history, materials are just materials that would not mean anything or have any value unless processed and given any shape. However, likewise Mono-ha, KOSHIMIZU, whose had been much inspired by its practice, recognizes the meaning and the value hidden in materials and sublime them in his works. This is why he has become one of the representative contemporary Japanese artists, who has made a strong impact to the art history of Japan.
This is the third solo exhibition of KOSHIMIZU after three years interval. Please visit the gallery to see KOSHIMIZU’s fresh development.
【Selected solo Exhibitions】
1981Takashimaya Department Store, Tokyo to celebrate 10th Denchu Hirakushi Prize
1992Sculptor of Today, of a Culture” The Museum of Fine Arts, Gifu, Ehime Prefectual Museum of Art, Ehime
1993“Susumu Koshimizu” Tokyo Gallery, Tokyo
2005“Susumu Koshimizu,” Kuma Museum of Art, Ehime, Japan
2010Retirement commemoration exhibition ”gravity / mass / work” , Kyoto City University of Arts, Kyoto
2010“Snow departs from snow” (Tokyo Gallery＋BTAP, Tokyo)
2013"Susumu Koshimizu," Gallery Yamaki Fine Art, Kobe, Japan
2013Blum＆Poe, Los Angels, CA, USA
2015Kizahashi no Niwa, Gallery Yamaki Fine Art, Kobe, Japan
2016Blum＆Poe, Los Angels, Tokyo, Japan
2018“The Moment of Vision, Body and Matter,” Gallery Yamaki Fine Art, Kobe, Japan.
2019MONO-HA | About The Moment Of Relation Between Eye, Hand And Matter, Aki Gakkery, Taipei
2021“Perpendicular Line”, Tokyo Gallery+BTAP, Tokyo, Japan.
【Selected Group Exhibitions】
2012(日本語) 「言葉と美術が繋ぐものー中原佑介へのオマージュ展」ギャラリーヤマキファインアート／神戸
2016Art Basel Hong Kong
2017"When Attitudes Become Form: Japanese Art of the 1970s through the Photography of Anzaï Shigeo," The National Museum of Modern Art, Osaka, Japan
2020Taipei Dangdai Art&Ideas Gallery Yamaki Fine Art Booth, Taipei, Taiwan
2020“PolyChord Susumu KOSHIMIZU and Noriyuki HARAGUCHI”, Asia Art Center Shanghai, China
2020“Great Artists in Takarazuka”, Takarazuka Arts Center, Takarazuka, Japan
2020“Collection: The Aesthetics of Contemporary Japan”, National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan
2021“Collection 1: 1968: In Search of a New Paradigm”, The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan
2021“Collection Exhibition in 2021”, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi, Japan
2021“Contemporary Kyoto Art 2021 - Non and Anima II" Ryosokuin, The Terminal Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan
2021“Mountains Carrying Suns”, Blum & Poe, Tokyo, Japan
2021“Art Collaboration Kyoto (ACK)” Kyoto International Conference Center Event Hall, Gallery Yamaki Fine Art Booth, Kyoto, Japan
2022“Art Collaboration Kyoto (ACK)” Kyoto International Conference Center Event Hall, Gallery Yamaki Fine Art Booth, Kyoto, Japan
2022“Study：Osaka Kansai International Art Festival / Art Fair 2022” Grand Front Osaka, Gallery Yamaki Fine Art Booth, Osaka, Japan
2023“Concept – Object – Environment”, Gallery Yamaki Fine Art, Kobe
2023Taipei Dangdai Art&Ideas Gallery Yamaki Fine Art Booth, Taipei, Taiwan
2024Group Exhibition: Relief to Three Dimensional, Gallery Yamaki Fine Art, Kobe
【Awards】
1972The 2nd Suma Palace Contemporary Sculpture Exhibition / Ube Sculpture Museum Award
1980The 11th Nakahara Teijirou Award
1981The 10th Hirakushi Denchu Award
1983New Generation of Contemporary Art, Okada Foundation Award
1985The 11th Contemporary Sculpture Exhibition / The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo Award
1987The 11th Contemporary Sculpture Exhibition / Mainichi Newspapers Award
1988Showa 62, Art Encouragement, Minister of Culture Award
1989The 2nd Kyoto Art and Culture Award
1999Kyoto Award for distinguished cultural service
2004The 2nd Enku Award
2007A Purple Ribbon Medal
【Artist Information】
Susumu KOSHIMIZU
SessionSat. Jun 23, 2018 - Fri. Jul 27, 2018 Closed on Sundays and Mondays
Hours11:00－13:00 / 14:00－19:00 [-17:00 on the last day]
PlaceGallery Yamaki Fine Art
Venue3-9-5-2F Motomachi, Chuo-ku, Kobe 650-0022
ContactTEL: 078-391-1666 FAX : 078-391-1667 MAIL: info@gyfa.co.jp
AccessOne minute walk from Motomachi Station, West exit (JR/ Hanshin Line)
ChargeFree
