21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa

We are surrounded by an immense flood of information. As the internet, social media,e-books, and digital video continue to advance, we have come to own only those printed books and magazines we truly need. NEUTRAL COLORS is an independent publisher founded in 2019 with the goal of printing, in only the quantities needed, not the “information” that circulates online but the “emotions” that demand to be retained in physical form. NEUTRAL COLORS is simultaneously the name of the publisher, of the magazine it publishes, and of its printing and binding workshop. At a time when instant sharing of digital information has become the norm, NEUTRAL COLORS remains steadfast in its approach to production: meeting the people it wishes to meet, listening to them at length, and devoting the necessary time to producing publications that deserve to endure.
This exhibition presents the very essence of its approach, tracing how reporting, editing, design, layout, printing, binding, and distribution organically intertwine. Through this process, NEUTRAL COLORS continues to share unique experiences, creative work, and memories through one-of-a-kind pages incorporating risography and other hands-on printing techniques.
Collaboration with outside partners is indispensable to the work of NEUTRAL COLORS. With the cooperation of independent bookstores, printers, designers, and others active in Kanazawa, this exhibition explores a new paradigm for the publishing cycle. Visitors can also follow the one-year cycle of NEUTRAL COLORS as a “circuit,” watching the gallery change according to the work underway as it functions in turn as a publishing house, office, and printing and binding workshop.