| japanese I english |
Yasutake Iwana, "Michitsukuri"January 14th - March 4th, 2022 taguchi fine art, tokyo |
|
|
Yasutake Iwana was born in 1987 in Mie prefecture. After his graduation from the painting course of Seian University of Art and Design in Kyoto in 2010, he stayed in Germany, studying at Art Academy in Duesseldorf as a guest student until 2012. He won the second prize at Art Award Tokyo in 2010, the first Mie TV Grand Prize in 2016, and the 19th Mie Prefecture Culture Award for New Artist in 2020. Currently living and working in his hometown, Shimagahara village in Mie. He has had a number of solo exhibitions at galleries in Osaka and Tokyo, and has had increasing opportunities to exhibit his works at museums, including "New-wave Artists in Mie" at Mie Prefectural Art Museum in 2015, "Aomori EARTH 2019" at Aomori Museum of Art in 2019, and "#StayMuseum" at Mie Prefectural Art Museum in 2020. He is a founding representative of the art group, "Mitsunoki (tree with sap)" in Shimagahara village organized in 2013 and is leading various activities deeply rooted in its local history, climate and culture. Recently this group is really noticed as an example of Art-Collective and Localism in contemporary art. His paintings are created in this activity, of which motifs are the nature and the religion in the village. In many case he starts the work from concrete objects around him, they are, however, highly abstract and really sophisticated. On this occasion, new paintings based on the motif of "Michi-Tsukuri," a road construction and maintenance service by local Shimagahara villagers will be featured. This series of paintings was first presented at Art Cologne last fall. Although it was the first time for Iwana's work to be shown there, it was very well received. We are looking forward to seeing how Iwana's works will be appreciated overseas in the near future. Several times a year, the villagers of my village hold a gathering called "Michitsukuri", where they cut the grass along the roads and footpaths between fields. In the morning, I went to the meeting point with a grass cutter. The small slope leading to the national road looked like a swamp due to fallen leaves, grass growing from the leaves, and rain. I started cutting grass with a large man who was nearby. "Someone was badly injured, someone was too drunk to move, someone was too old to join us anymore". - Signal for a break - A laughing voice on the other side of the road said, "Our fields have been destroyed by the beasts againÓ. The shed used a few years ago was covered in ivy and leaning heavily, and the field that had bore red tomatoes a year ago had turned into a wasteland. I spoke to a person I had never seen before who was loading grass onto a truck without conversation. "Who are you ?" "Do you live here ?" - Signal to restart working - Yasutake Iwana, February, 2023, in Shimagahara Recently he has been featured often in his teacher-student relationship with Sadamasa Motonaga, a major artist of the Gutai Art Association. This spring large works from "Things we've all broken" are scheduled to be presented at the VOCA exhibition (The Vision of Contemporary Art/ The Ueno Royal Museum in Tokyo). checklist of the installation 1. Michitsukuri (Country Road), 2022 oil on canvas, 130.3 x 97.0 cm 2. Michitsukuri (Landlord), 2022 oil on canvas, 130.3 x 97.0 cm 3. Michitsukuri (Farmland), 2022 oil on canvas, 100.0 x 80.3 cm 4. Michitsukuri (Rest), 2022 oil on canvas, 80.3 x 65.2 cm 5. Michitsukuri (Field Invaders), 2022 oil on canvas, 72.7 x 60.6 cm 6. Michitsukuri (Border), 2022 oil on canvas, 60.6 x 72.7 cm 7. Michitsukuri (Sound of Mountains), 2022 oil on canvas, 65.2 x 53.0 cm 8. Michitsukuri (Traps), 2022 oil on canvas, 65.2 x 53.0 cm@ 9. Michitsukuri (Rumor), 2022 oil on canvas, 60.6 x 50.0 cm@ 10. Michitsukuri (Untitled), 2022 oil on canvas, 53.0 x 45.5 cm 11. Traces of animals, 2022 oil on canvas, 45.5 x 53.0 cm@ 12. Michitsukuri (Stranger), 2022 oil on canvas, 53.0 x 41.0 cm 13. Michitsukuri (Meeting place), 2022 oil on canvas, 45.5 x 38.0 cm |