Carolina Raquel Antich "Nightfall"

at Art-U room

Media: Painting

(2009-11-27 - 2009-12-20)
Opening Reception on 2009-11-27 from 18:00 to 20:30

Carolina Raquel Antich was born in Rosario, Argentina in 1970. She moved to Italy in the late 1990s and is currently based in Venice, where she works mostly as a painter. She won the Italian Youth Art Prize in 2005, and exhibited at the 51st Venice Biennale. In recent years she has held solo shows in New York, London and Lugano, and exhibited at the Rome Quadriennale in 2008.

Antich’s work often features pre-pubescent children - slender youths getting excited over war games, or portraits of girls whose expressions betray an ego that is just starting to awaken. These paintings not only reflect the innocence and artlessness of childhood, but also a fickle emotional temperament that can sometimes turn into savagery or perversity.

Her previous solo show held at Art-U Room in 2007 featured mostly works with a restrained palette and sense of translucency, but here Antich has chosen to employ more vivid colors that recall illusionary landscapes that seem to have come out of a child’s dream.

[Image: "Night Fishing" (2009) acrylic on canvas, 55x42cm]

Marcus Coates Exhibition

at Tomio Koyama Gallery

Media: Video installation - Art Party - Art Talk

(2009-11-07 - 2009-11-21)
Opening Reception on 2009-11-07 from 18:00 to 20:00

Tomio Koyama Gallery and The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation are delighted to announce Marcus Coates’ solo exhibition at Tomio Koyama Gallery in Tokyo. This prestigious solo show has been awarded to him as winner of the Daiwa Foundation Art Prize in June this year.

The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation is a UK-based charity which supports closer links between Britain and Japan. Coates competed against nearly 900 applicants for this unique opportunity.

Jonathan Watkins, Director of Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, was one of the eminent judges. He remarks: ‘Coates has emerged as an artist with a distinct and extraordinary vision. He is making work now which is better than ever.’

Professor Marie Conte-Helm, Director General of the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, comments: ‘This challenging exhibition reflects the spirit behind the Daiwa Foundation Art Prize - to open new doors for British artists in Japan.’

Coates’ film, installation and performance art focuses on the relationship between humans and other species. His work has received international acclaim and he has recently shown work at the Tate Modern, London. The exhibition will include one of his best known works, Dawn Chorus, in which the human voice accurately mimics birdsong, as well as his most recently commissioned piece, Intelligent Design, filmed in the Galapagos Islands in 2008, which depicts the failed attempt of two mating tortoises.

Artist Talk and Performance
Location: Academy Hills (Roppongi Hills Mori Tower)
Date & Time: November 9th (Mon) 19:00-20:30
Guests: Marcus Coates, Jonathan Watkins (Icon Gallery director)
Capacity: 100 persons
Free admission
First-come first-served basis

Fernando Bellver "Tokyo Diary"

at Instituto Cervantes Tokyo, Japones

Media: Drawing - Art Party

(2009-10-20 - 2010-01-13)
Opening Reception on 2009-10-20 from 19:00

Fernando Bellver (born 1954 in Madrid) is an artist who won the Spain Graphic Art Prize in 2008. He has spent much time over the years traveling the world and recording his impressions in a notebook. This exhibition features sketches and memos of daily experiences from his stay in Tokyo in October 2009.

"ITCH + HATCH" Exhibition

at Gallery Kitai

Media: Painting - Art Party

(2009-10-10 - 2009-10-24)
Opening Reception on 2009-10-10 from 17:00

Itch – Kenji Ichikawa – has previously been selected three times for the Taro Okamoto Contemporary Art Prize Exhibition, and expected to do great things in the future. Hatch – Kotaro Hachinohe - previously belonged to the pivotal center of the Japanese calligraphy world, and along with continued study, his future is one filled also with great expectations. Working day and night on his pieces, in a corner of Tokyo is Itch. Holding his brush day and night in a corner of New York is Hatch. While Itch’s Ikebana series and Hatch’s trace K series have been acquired by many overseas collectors, they have yet to appear on the horizon in their home country of Japan. The same Itch and Hatch met by coincidence last autumn at Kitai Gallery and will thus unite for this exhibition “Itchka Hatchka” (Itch
or Hatch).

[Image: Kenji Ichikawa, "Ikebana" (2008), photogravure, high heels, kenzan, wood panel]