Tokyo, Japan – waitingroom is pleased to announce our group exhibition, “Summer Group Show – From Now On-” which is to be held from 7/12(Sat.) to 8/17(Sun.) 2014. We will be presenting works of key gallery artists who will be set the direction of the future of the gallery. The following 6 artists will be featured: Yuko MORI, Yusuke SHIBATA, Yuki IIYAMA, Koichiro TAKESUE, Yuichi HIRAKO, and Shoko MORITA. The exhibition will include various means of expression, including installation, photography, video, painting and sculpture.
Yuko MOHRI was born in 1980 in Kanagawa. She creates installation works from everyday goods and dismantled pieces of objects that sense the power of nature, such as magnetic force, gravity, light, and temperature. Her major solo exhibitions include, “Sauvage-the wilderness within the city” (Art Center Ongoing, 2013,) “Orochi” (waitingroom, 2013,) and “Circus”(The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Bloomberg Pavilion, 2012.) She has also participated in group exhibitions such as “MEDIA ART/KOITCHEN”(The National Museum of Indonesia, Jakarta, 2013)”, “Art and Music” (Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, 2012) and many others in Japan and abroad. Additionally, she has received the Bacon Prize at the “Art Fair Tokyo 2014”. She is also showcasing her work in “Sapporo International Art Festival 2014” and “Yokohama Triennale 2014” in this summer. At this exhibition, she will be presenting the series, “More More Tokyo” that she introduced at Art Fair Tokyo 2014 and her latest edition works that she presented at the group exhibition in Manila.
Yusuke SHIBATA was born in 1980 in Fukuoka. He is recognized for his performance work, “Cleaning Disco” which was held at “Roppongi Art Night” in 2013 and his successful solo exhibitions, “Planet” (Art Center Ongoing, 2013) and “BGM” (waitingroom, 2014). He is an artist who also actively works outside of Japan, participating in artist in residence programs, such as in Canada and Argentina. The underlying theme of his work is to present, “the escape from the ‘good story,’ or the world interpreted to one’s advantage.” He expresses this theme in a form of installation combining multiple medias like video, photography and several objects. At this exhibition, he will present two of his past single channel video works.
Yuki IIYAMA was born in 1988 in Kanagawa. She is an emerging artist who recently finished her MFA program at Tokyo University of the Arts in 2013. She gained attention for her solo exhibition, “Steam, Smoke, Grace” (JIKKA, 2013) and has been showcasing her works at many other places ever since. She creates videos, installations, and knit works based on her collection of scrapbooks that she purchases on the online auction site. At this exhibition, she will present her video work that will lead into her solo exhibition that we are planning to hold at our gallery in September.
Koichiro TAKESUE was born in 1974 and currently lives in Tokyo. He received the encouragement award at “VOCA exhibition” in 2012. He mainly works with digital media, processing photographic images on the computer. The theme of his work is to show the “materiality and immateriality through the pixels” that goes back and forth between digital and analogue techniques. His pieces can be regarded as both paintings and photographs. In the recent years, he has been presenting works that focus on kinetic energy and the sense of touch. At his solo exhibition we held at our gallery in February 2014, we succeeded in making his work available in a data format. This exhibit became one of the milestones of his career for this experiment. At the summer exhibition, he will showcase several images and printed works he introduced at his solo exhibition in February.
Yuichi HIRAKO was born in 1982 in Okayama. He is a painter and sculptor who creates works on the theme of coexistence of mankind and nature in the cityscape, and the relationship that emerges in that situation. In addition to his exhibition careers in Japan, he is actively showing in abroad, such as in Copenhagen, Singapore, Taiwan, and San Francisco. He is regarded as a rising artist in Japan too; he entered the “Shell Art Award” in 2009, received the “Tokyo Wonder Wall Award” in 2010, and won the encouragement award at the “VOCA exhibition” in 2013. At this exhibition, he is presenting his latest paintings and sculptures.
Shoko MORITA was born in 1977 in Toyama. Her recent exhibitions include a solo exhibition, “Across the Hill”(waitingroom, Tokyo) and a group exhibition, “Dea Syuturumu”(Nagoya Civic Gallery Yada, Aichi,) both in 2013, and another solo exhibition, “through the fog” (Satellite, Okayama) in 2011. She is an artist who uniquely captures the change between reality and fantasy as the theme of her work and mainly creates paintings and drawings. She emotionally shows the boundary between reality and fantasy through the layers of thick paint, which represent the layers of human memories. At this exhibition, not only will she present her works in the usual two-dimensional format, but she will also take the challenge in expanding her way of expression in a three-dimensional format. She will be showcasing her latest painting and sculpture pieces.