加茂昂 / Akira Kamo

Akira Kamo

1982
Born in Tokyo, Japan
2010
B.F.A. Painting, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music
2012
M.F.A. Painting, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music

Solo Exhibitions
2018
“Vicarious Scene” Maruki Gallery For The Hiroshima Panels, Saitama
2017
“Portrait of the Scene” Tsunagi Art Museum, Kumamoto
“Between Landscape and Portrait” island JAPAN, Tokyo
”Vicarious Painting” Hiroshima Art Center, Hiroshima
2016
“Death grows in the soil” Tachibana Gallary, Tokyo
“Anti-sanctuary” Tachibana Gallary, Tokyo
2012
“[Painting] and [Survival]” island MEDIUM, Tokyo

Group Exhibitions
2016
“TSUSHIMA Art Fantasia 2016” Tsushima, Nagasaki
2015
“Navigation & Trajectory” Aomori Contemporary Art Centre, Aomori
“TSUSHIMA Art Fantasia 2015” Tsushima, Nagasaki
“The Vision of Contemporary Art 2015” The Ueno Royal Museum
2014
“Trans Art Tokyo 2014” Former Tokyo Denki University, Tokyo
“TSUSHIMA Art Fantasia 2014” Tsushima, Nagasaki
“Wall Art Festival 2014” Ashram School, India
2013
“Artists in Residense Project at the Soy Sauce Warehouse, Spring Session”
Setouchi Triennale 2013, Shodoshima, Kagawa
“The Vision of Contemporary Art 2013” The Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo
“Memento Mori Eros & Thanatos” ARATANIURANO, Tokyo
“cho tamatama – A Group Show by Coincidentally Gathered Artists” Chateau 2F, Tokyo
2012
“SHARE” BOX KIOKU, Tokyo
“Parallel Waves” RED ELATION GALLERY, Hong Kong
“Power of Painting” NADiff Gallary, Tokyo
2011
“GOD HAND” Mitsui Garden Hotel, Chiba
“island SUMMER collection” island MEDIUM, Tokyo
“Power of Painting” 3331 Arts Chiyoda, 1F main gallery, Tokyo
“ν romancer” island MEDIUM, Tokyo
2010
“FRESH 2010” TURNER GALLERY, Tokyo
“The Birth of Hongo Art Star” AICOLORS FACTORY, Tokyo
“RAKURAKU FESTIVAL” GALLERY RAKU, Kyoto
“TURNER Loves FRESH” TURNER GALLERY, Tokyo
“ART FAUR FREE” VACANT, Tokyo
“island LOVES FRESH” island, Chiba
2009
“JUWAJU JOBAN-KASUWA PROJEECT” Art Line Kashiwa 2009, Kashiwa, Chiba
“Conquering Snow Dynamo Art Project” The Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial 2009, Niigata
“Beppu Contemporary Art Festival 2009 ’Mixed Bathing World’” Oita
“101tokyo 101DISCOVERIES” Akihabara UDX, Tokyo
“FRESH” R2, Chiba
2008
“FRESH SELECTION” art project room ARTZONE, Kyoto
2007
“Shared vision 3” National University of Fine Arts and Music, atelier 713, Tokyo
“Shared vision 2” Book shop & Café Koenji-Shorin, Tokyo
2006
“Shared vision” Yanakabossa, Tokyo

During his student years Takafumi Sakai presented the idea of a “Barter Trade Shop”. It is an interactive piece in which anyone could participate; the rules of the “Barter Trade Shop” located inside his university were extremely simple. “Anyone may leave unneeded items. Anyone may take an item if they they wish”, that was it. Sakai studies the value of objects through this barter trade shop. He sometimes gathers items that are never claimed to create a piece of artwork, and sometimes does performances trading for part of the viewers’ life, stirring current values. What is so special about him, is his thoroughness in that nearly all the items he uses in his life are covered by things he has either traded or picked up. He gives us an opportunity to think about what consumption and value means, risking himself through his comical confrontation towards this excessive consumer society.

(Takafumi Sakai)

Showhey Kato plants and grows his own rice. He makes salt from seawater, he makes miso and he makes pickled plums. He eats and laughs a lot. His body is full of vitality, and faces the canvas as if to explode this energy. The more he is in touch with nature, the more sensitive he becomes to current social issues including environmental issues, angering him, causing him to think and act with his body. His paintings seem to be a process of confirming the gap and discomfort between the nature felt physically through the skin, and the world perceived as a modern social being. A deep sense of holistic love towards raw nature and the human ego can be felt physically as a viewer.

(Showhey Kato)

Shinji Asai’s paintings are closely connected to nature. His paintings, painted as if to dismiss greed and heighten the purity of the process of painting itself, seem to consciously or unconsciously inherit the subtleties of a time when homo sapiens had for a long time cultivated animism and myths whilst living in nature. These subtleties are like those found in the paintings of aborigines, or the crafts of the Inuit, they have a purity that unconditionally excites the hearts of viewers. The further the human life and senses become from nature, the more light that is placed on Shinji Asai’s paintings in counter-effect.

(Shinji Asai)