顧剣亨 / Kenryou Gu

2001-2002
Kitashirakawa Primary School, Kyoto
2002-2010
Fudan Vanke Experimental Private School, Shanghai
2010-2013
Shanghai NO.2 High School, Shanghai
2016
École nationale supérieure de la photographie, Arles (Exchange program)
2014-2018
Kyoto University of Art and Design, Contemporary Art and Photography Course

Solo Exhibitions
2018
“Utopia” Graduation Show, Kyoto University of Art and Design, Kyoto
“Utopia” Former Junpu Elementary School, Kyoto
“Wu-Mai” Wacoal Studyhall Kyoto gallery

Group Exhibitions
2014
“Hi, my name is…” Shokudo Ruins, Kyoto
2015
“Uryuyama?” Galerie Aube, Kyoto
2016
“Kyoto Survey Project” ABSship Gallery, Kyoto
“Artothèque Selection” D&Department Gallery, Kyoto
2017
“Open House” Contemporart Art House Gallery of The Youth, Kyoto

Art Leasing
2016.07.22-
“Wu-Mai” HOTEL ANTEROOM KYOTO 5F
2016.07.22-
“us” Room 555, HOTEL ANTEROOM KYOTO

In Chinese there is a word called “Wu-Mai” originally referring to Asian Dust, but recently has the same meaning as smog. In comparison to the rapid economic growth period for instance, air pollution today has a specific beauty about it. From this harmful yet purely white air, one can almost sense the flow of time like in a traditional Chinese landscape painting. If you look close at this scenery, people who live in the “Wu-Mai” continue their lives as if there is nothing different. Even though at some point people show an overreaction, it is only for a relatively short period of time. When they look back, most time they find that they have already lost their enthusiasm. This project started four years ago as a continuous series, and I still remember the naive thoughts from people regarding to the “Wu-Mai” at the time. However, as time passes by, people including myself are less concerned about “Wu-Mai”. Regardless of how the environment effects on our health, we have become numb towards this issue, and continue our lives as if nothing has happened. I attempt to visualize this scenery of the present life, as a contemporary version of the Chinese landscape paintings.

I believe he is in the middle of a shoot at a coalmine in Inner Mongolia as I write this. Making full use of his potential as a Chinese who lives in Japan and an English-speaker, he quickly became assistant to Cai Guo-Qiang at PARASOPHIA as he enters university, called by Cai as support for every exhibition thereafter, and also assisting the Indian guest artist in Shodoshima during Setouchi Triennale, getting a glimpse of the art etiquette amongst the top starting from an early stage. Such fruits are naturally incarnated in his work, but a simple sentence to explain his gifts would be, his formidable volume of production and travel distance. It is obvious that there is no shortcut or magic to flourishing as an artist; the overt fact that he continues to travel and observe, releasing the shutter in the midst of things, is what sustains him. Since being awarded the President’s Award at the graduation exhibition this February, he has been stepping up steadily winning awards at various competitions, and there must be no objection in overlapping the weight of the continental DNA, with the fact that his work holds an air of lucid eastern knowledge, unimaginable from someone as young as him.

(Noboru Tsubaki)