Period
July 21 - August 23, 2000 Event: Artist talk is hold on August 4 , 18:30~

Tel
03-3497-1261

Fax
03-3497-8665

URL
http://www.itochugy.co.jp

MAIL
info@itochugy.co.jp

Opening hours
10:00 - 18:00, 12:00 - 18:00 ( Saturdays ),Admission free,osed on Sundays and National Holidays


Exhibition Summary
We are pleased to present the exhibition focused on an emerging Japanese artist Takashi Yamauchi as the project titled ITOCHU Gallery Summer Show. This project is to produce young artists and propose the space for their presentations.

After graduating from Musashino Arts University in 1998, Takashi Yamauchi took part in many contemporary art events; for instance Haizuka Earth Works located in Hiroshima and the exhibition "Goka soshina ( luxurious small gift )" which was held simultaneously with the lecture of Prof. Harald Szeeman, curator. It was the sixth previous opening event for Contemporary Art Museum Construction, Kanazawa. He is known to be one of the most promising artists today.

Especially for the tautology paintings of which the medium is a canvas made from various painted cloths with checked or flowery patterns, there are full of visible charm, pop and cute images. He also produced the three - dimensional works, Lego Blocks and Trump Tower as if we used to enjoy them in the class of drawing and manual arts in school days.

Moreover, always he keeps on new trial against the traditional art scene. He directly puts clothes on a wooden frame of canvas or intentionally shows the bare wooden frame of the canvas.

Now we hold his exhibition here based on his prospect and possibility for his bright future. We would be grateful if you could take this opportunity to appreciate his works.

We ITOCHU Gallery will offer our space to young artists' presentation aiming at the discovery and promotion for the international artists.


The Painting - Representation in Neo-Academism
Yamauchi describes the patterns on his works, for instance red or blue checkACrabbitACaloha print and fretwork. It seems to be his simple pursuit of patterns as a geometric prints. He is likely to use the printed cloths instead of the canvas and paint the same patterns over the cloths. Most of the works which are categorized into " Tautology" were produced in his university days. In this series, " This Ao-iro Shirt is this Ao-iro Shirt.", attaching the real shirt on the canvas, is as it were the work of his turning point as he himself said. On that shirt which is half-sleeved and blue check patterned he realized the up-side-down and magnified projection by crayon based on the same pattern as the shirt.

On the other hand, his creation reaches to three dimensional works using LEGO blocks. Also he reproduces the shape of plastic beads for the education tool of children which easily come to stick with heat. This year, finally, a huge trump tower made of expanded polystyrene panels has been just completed. It is to say that he tends to use children toys or handcraft materials in all these works.

The consistent impression for his style is very " drawing and manual arts " just like we studied in primary school. We would say that the time corresponds to his genuine "academic" style. It is easy to image the difficulty of the new pictorial creation as a follower. However our impression against his works is totally different because of his originality and unique proposal. That is why he never hands in completely correct answer. Although this artist gazes on art properly, his works contains the gaps which we viewer expected before. It is sure that the gaps themselves make us funny.

Based on the pictorial rule, he openly escapes from the stable and conservative concept. We would name him " Neo-Academic " along with contemporary "remix-taste". (ITOCHU Gallery : satomi nakai)