The Sea by Night and Day by Toru Kuwakubo

12 Sep 2012 to 14 Oct 2012

At the Japan House Gallery

Organised by the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation

The Sea by Night and Day is an exhibition containing a new body of work by Toru Kuwakubo. Following his VOCA awarded work, Study of Mom (2011), he explores the idea of the sea as the origin of life, in contrast to its associations with fear and destruction, especially in post-tsunami Japan. In this first solo show in London, Kuwakubo will experiment by dividing the exhibition spaces into day and night to invite viewers to navigate through his world.

Toru Kuwakubo’s work seeks to question the nature of artistic practice. In adopting the persona of fictional painter Kuwoud Bonet, a character inspired by the work of the Impressionists, Kuwakubo explores clichés of ‘Art’ and ‘The Artist’. His paintings depict everyday objects set within vibrant seascapes; their thick layers of richly coloured pigment imbuing a deep sense of nostalgia. Though originating from his personal experience, the paintings appear as if they are fiction from the artist’s mind.

Toru Kuwakubo was born in 1978 in Kanagawa, Japan. After graduating from Tama Art University in 2002, he was awarded the 3rd Koji Kinutani Prize by Mainichi Newspapers in 2011 and the VOCA Encouragement Prize in 2012. Selected exhibitions include Portrait Session, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima (2007), Out of Noise, GALLERY HYUNDAI, Gangnam Space, Seoul (2010), and Telling of Sea, Telling of Painter, Tokyo Wonder Site Shibuya, Tokyo (2010). Kuwakubo’s work is included in major collections in Japan, including the Toyota Art Collection, Takamatsu City Museum of Art, Takahashi Collection, the Flowerman Collection and The Dai-ichi Mutual Life Insurance Company. Kuwakubo is represented by Tomio Koyama Gallery, Japan.

Picasso and Modern British Art

15 February  –  15 July 2012

Picasso remains the twentieth century’s single most important artistic figure, a towering genius who changed the face of modern art.

In a major new exhibition at Tate Britain, Picasso and Modern British Art explores his extensive legacy and influence on British art, how this played a role in the acceptance of modern art in Britain, alongside the fascinating story of Picasso’s lifelong connections to and affection for this country.

It brings together over 150 spectacular artworks, with over 60 stunning Picassos including sublime paintings from the most remarkable moments in his career, such asWeeping Woman 1937 and The Three Dancers 1925.

It offers the rare opportunity to see these celebrated artworks alongside seven of Picasso’s most brilliant British admirers, exploring the huge impact he had on their art: Duncan Grant, Wyndham Lewis, Ben Nicholson, Henry Moore, Francis Bacon, Graham Sutherland and David Hockney.

Picasso and Modern British Art is the first exhibition to trace Picasso’s rise in Britain as a figure of both controversy and celebrity. From his London visit in 1919, working on the scenery and costumes for Diaghilev’s ballet The Three Cornered Hat; to his post-war reputation and political appearances; leading up to the phenomenally successful 1960 Tate exhibition.

Full of beautiful and inspirational artworks, this exhibition is an unmissable treat and a fascinating insight into how British art became modern.

Chilsu Wa Mansu

March 08, 2012

Multi Purpose Hall, KCCUK

Chilsu, a talented young artist, makes his living painting theatrical posters. He quits his job to join Mansu painting billboards. Chilsu dreams of joining his sister in the United States, but loses contact with her. Mansu’s father has long been a political prisoner. The two men spend their free time at discos and drinking with their student friend Jin-A. After Mansu’s fathers is denied leave for his hwangab, or 60th birthday celebration, and they discover that Jin-A has entered an arranged marriage, the two climb onto a roof over a billboard they have painted and begin venting their frustrations at the crowd below.

Private view: The Light Field

Private view details:

14 September 2011, 6:00 – 8:00pm

Daiwa Foundation Japan House

Organised by the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation

BOOKING FORM

Exhibition information:

13 Sep 2011 – 20 Oct 2011

The Light Field

This first London exhibition by the Japanese artist, Daisuke Ohba, showcases his unique ‘light field’ paintings, achieved through the use of iridescent pearl paint to produce continual transformations, image shifts, and colour transitions, as the light varies or as the viewer moves.

Daisuke Ohba is a Japanese artist based inTokyo. One of the attractions of Ohba’s art is his use of iridescent pearl paint, ever-changing image shifts and colour transition as the light varies or as the viewer moves. By developing this relationship with the viewer, Ohba has been discovering new possibilities in pictorial space. Facing one of these works, the viewer is in the presence of a dazzling world of light, which seems to be produced somewhere beyond the canvas. This pictorial space can be thought of as a “light field”, which gives the exhibition its name.

Ohba was born in Shizuoka in 1981 and received his MFA at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. He was awarded the Shell Art Prize in 2004. His recent exhibition in Tokyo, The Light Field, was held as a joint exhibition by two galleries, SCAI THE BATHHOUSE and Magical ARTROOM. Ohba has been extensively showing in group exhibitions nationally and internationally including Vivid Material at Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music, THE ECHO at ZAIM in Yokohama in 2008, VOCA 2010 at The Ueno Royal Museum, and Toki- no-Yuenchiat Nagoya/Boston Museum of Fine Arts in Aichi. His works are found in collections of The Pigozzi (New York), Japan Airlines and Dries Van Noten (Tokyo).

The artist will be introduced by Keith Whittle, International Projects Associate, Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design and Japan Foundation Fellow.