3 29

Open

EXHIBITION

Aperto 10

YOKOYAMA Nami Memories of Love and Me

2019.4.6 (Sat.) -
2019.6.30 (Sun.)

Information

Period :
2019.4.6 (Sat.) - 2019.6.30 (Sun.)
10:00 - 18:00 (until 20:00 on Fridays and Saturdays)
Venue :
21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa
Long-Term Project Room
Closed:
Mondays (Open on May 6), and May 7 (Tue.)
Admission:
Free
For More Information:
21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa
Phone: +81-76-220-2800
Facsimile: +81-76-220-2802
E-Mail: info@kanazawa21.jp

About the Exhibition

YOKOYAMA Nami (1986-) produces paintings depicting motifs of objects that are consumed or discarded in everyday life. By giving a leading role to items ordinarily ignored, whose fate it is to be thrown away, she distances herself from predefined meanings and uses, endeavoring to see in new ways and express “the primordial beauty and meaning of existence inherent in all things.”
This exhibition will feature works addressing the themes she has recently turned her energies to—“What is love?” and “What is beauty?” Yokoyama’s neon series of paintings depict both the beautiful light of the neon tubes—their leading role—and their “unsightly” wiring, power cords, and mounting hidden at the back. In this way, she gives equal prominence to our ideals and aspirations and our hidden side we are unable to gloss over. Then, her charcoal drawing series Memories of Love and Me, whose name lends this exhibition its title, depicts scenes of her memories of a girl and a dog named Love. After hearing the news that advances in selective breeding to meet people’s preferences in fact shorten the dogs’ lives, she felt compelled to examine the “love” we give our dogs.
“Love”—a word used too casually these days. By exercising her qualms and misgivings or else serious emotions about “love” in artworks, she pursues the meaning of this word tossed around in everyday life. Through some 30 paintings and drawings—the fruits of Yokoyama’s investigation into “love”—visitors will have occasion to ponder the essential nature of things.

Related Events

Artist Talk
YOKOYAMA Nami will discuss her exhibited artworks.
Date/time: May 25 (Sat), 2019
Venue: 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa
Admission: Free

Profile

YOKOYAMA Nami

Born in Gifu in 1986. Lives and works in Ibaraki, Japan. In 2012, completed her MFA in painting at Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music. Her major exhibitions include the "NISSAN ART AWARD 2017" (BankART Studio NYK, 2017), “VOCA Exhibition – The Vision of Contemporary Art 2015” (Ueno Royal Museum, 2015), "Reaching for the Real" (Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, 2014), and "Draw the world" (Art Lab Aichi, 2013). Her major awards include the “NISSAN ART AWARD 2017  Audience Award” (2017) and “ The 8th Kinutani Koji Award, Incentive Award (2016).”

Artist Statement

Sexy Man and Sexy Woman 2018
oil on linen
194 × 400 cm
Photo: WAKABAYASHI Hayato

“Love” is a word popularly used throughout the world. The word spread in Japan under the influence of Christianity, and today many people are familiar with it.
Love, the ability to care for others, is considered the most important thing in life, and the word is often used as a theme in movies, songs, and artworks. It is also used as a logo on t-shirts, keyholders, and commonplace objects of all kinds. We live in a world filled with the word “love.” Yet, is the world full of love in its true meaning? This word we repeat over and over, like a magic incantation, I sense has been so overused its original meaning has fallen away, leaving only its letters—an empty word.
This time, compelled by memories of love in my life, I display artworks that search for the essence lost from the word “love.”

Aperto

The exhibition series “Aperto” introduces up-and-coming young artists in a solo exhibition format. As an art museum actively engaged with the contemporary world, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa looks closely at new trends now in the process of forming. Artists and curators collaborate in creating occasions for exhibiting works and act as an intermediary between today’s creation and that of the future. This exhibition series looks at individual artists who, although having little experience with solo or important group exhibitions at art museums, possess sufficient creative motivation to command a solo exhibition and who are expected to make a significant impact in the future. Artists are selected without regard for their nationality or expressive media by the curator at 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa. Note: “Aperto” is Italian for “open.”

Images

    LOVE 2018
    oil on linen
    182 × 227.5 cm
    Photo: WAKABAYASHI Hayato

    From Memories of Love and Me (2018-19)
    carbon on paper
    51 × 36 cm
    Photo: WAKABAYASHI Hayato

    From Memories of Love and Me (2018-19)
    carbon on paper
    44.6 × 34.7 cm
    Photo: WAKABAYASHI Hayato

    From Memories of Love and Me (2018-19)
    carbon on paper
    33.7 × 27.7 cm
    Photo: WAKABAYASHI Hayato

    From Memories of Love and Me (2018-19)
    carbon on paper
    30.6 × 25.5 cm
    Photo: WAKABAYASHI Hayato

Organizers

Organized by:
21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa (Kanazawa Art Promotion and Development Foundation)
In Cooperation with:
KENJI TAKI GALLERY