“Draw Lines & Shapes in My Maps”
Feb. 28 - Apr. 06, 2024
T&Y Gallery is pleased to present a group exhibition, "Draw Lines & Shapes in My Maps". This exhibition features works by seven up-and-coming young artists from Japan: Kohei Yamada, Yoshiyuki Umehara, Machi Sugita, Keishi Sudo, Emiri Nakata, Hinako Miyabayashi, and Ryota Watanabe.
In today's world, one of the tools many people, including myself, use is a map. It’s used in various situations, such as when going to an unfamiliar place, transferring trains, or looking up stores in the area. Digitization of the map continue growing, and everything could be done on a smartphone in our hands.
That "maps" everyone uses actually left to its user. When we look at a map, we tend to superimpose it on the state of reality, but in reality, it’s just a reconstruction of reality, just as the borders in the map are unrecognizable in real space. In addition, since maps are created by the professional organization with the accurate measurements, individuals cannot freely intervene in them, and they are authoritative. Although the scale and distances are accurate, thus there are things that cannot be expressed only by that. Therefore, there is needs of “maps”. “ maps” are often made only for a small area, for example, sightseeing maps and gourmet maps are designed in various way with writer’s recommendations of stores and restaurants and their photographs.
The title of this exhibition is borrowed from the function "Draw Lines and Shapes" section of "My Maps" in Google Maps. The two words "lines and shapes" are closely related to the art such as painting, photography, and sculpture. While "map" is a medium for reconstructing, communicating, and sharing reality (the map serves reality), "My Map" is entirely derived from its personal use. It is also possible to emphasize, exaggerate, distort, or hide certain realities through the conscious use of both lines and shapes. (It could also contain time and emotion.)
This exhibition is a reconstruction of the exhibition held at Taka Ishii Gallery Maebashi from November 19 to December 28, 2023, with the new exhibiting artists. In the Maebashi exhibition, by bringing in this concept of "My Maps" individual artists, who at first were only dots, were able to form a line by connecting dots next to each other and to acquire smoothness and connectivity. This time, by moving the exhibition location from "Maebashi" to "Los Angeles," a completely different place, we aim to practice a new reframing. By Kohei Yamada
Kohei Yamada
(b. 1997, Osaka, Japan)
Yoshiyuki Umehara
(b. 1997, Gunma, Japan)
He graduated from Tama Art University in 2020 with a BFA in oil painting. He paints tableaus of faces/images that he suddenly feels in the relationship between "things" and "I" or at the point of contact between them. The FACE series began as a record of the vaguely sensed faces that exist at the point of contact between the existence of things and myself. The sensation of being stared at by objects, the sensing of presence from objects and space, and the face that is inspired by these things and shown to me by myself. Why is this? I always think about where the soul resides in things and me.
Machi Sugita
(b. 2000, Saitama, Japan)
She graduated from Joshibijutu Junior College of Art and Design, Fine Arts Course in 2020, and from the same university as a research student in 2022 (B.A.).
Using "light" and "signboards" created by humans, neon lights and city lights as unique motifs, she creates works that contain discourses and warnings about human rights, ethnic groups, and social issues.
Keishi Sudo
(b. 1993, Hokkaido, Japan)
He is dedicated to presenting nature in a fresh light. He holds a master's degree in Forest Landscape Planning from Tokyo University and creates works that further explore spaces that are already open. Drawing inspiration from the auditory device found in Japanese gardens called "Shishi-odoshi", it is a traditional bamboo apparatus that gradually fills with water, producing a distinctive sound when reaching full capacity. Sudo explains, "When you hear the sound of Shishi-odoshi, the previously audible sounds of water, wind, birds, and insects rush in with a fresh perspective." Resonating with the simplicity of Shishi- odoshi, he engages in unrestricted artistic creation, aiming to unveil new perspectives with minimal interventions.
Emiri Nakada
(b. 1997, Tokyo, Japan)
She graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts, Department of Sculpture in 2021, and completed her M.A. in sculpture at same university in 2023.
Based on her experience of performing roles on stage to become a professional ballerina, she creates works using ceramics and CG/video. She incorporates theatrical elements from everyday life into stories based on ballet, theater performances, and fairy tales. By superimposing hollow ceramics and empty people as containers for roles, she explores the way people are.
Hinako Miyabayashi
(b. 1997, Hokkaido, Japan)
She was a exchange student at the Berlin University of the Arts (under Mark Lammert) in 2019; graduated from Tama Art University with B.A. in oil painting in 2021; acquire Meisterschuller from the Berlin University of the Arts in 2023 (under Thilo Heinzmann), currently in the Graduate School of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts, majoring in painting.
She primarily focuses on oil painting, expresses a consistent viewpoint while using various mediums, such as collages. By creating drawings on a daily basis, almost like a diary, she explores her relationship with drawing, being drawn, subjects, drawing materials, and paintings.
Ryota Watanabe
(b. 1998, Saitama, Japan)
He graduated from Tohoku University of Art & Design in 2021, and completed his graduate studies at Tokyo University of the Arts in 2023.
Going against the flow of time that visual is becoming higher resolution, thinner, and faster, he is exploring for a space where he can land by giving a boundary to the sensation where the boundary has disappeared, and by the reconstruction of "lowering the resolution”. Before losing identity, leaving the a lasting impression.