|
|
|
|
Mario Garcia Torres & Mario Lopez Landa, I Promise Every Time, 2007, Sound on 10" Vinyl. |
gallery.sora Garcia Torres presents his works mainly on film, video, photography and projected photographs as well as in printed interventions. Born in 1975 in Monclova, he graduated from the California Institute of the Arts in 2005 and currently lives in San Diego. Recent solo shows include venues such as the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Kadist Art Foundation, Paris (where he was a resident) and Jan Mot, Brussels, amongst others. He has also, participated in the 52 Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Escultura Social, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, "Learn to Read" and Saturday Live Actions & Interruptions, Tate Modern, London and Elephant Cemetery, Artist's Space, New York. He recently received The Cartier Award 2007. "So-called Conceptual Art has always interested me. It is difficult for me to explain why, but I could say that the first thing that intrigued me about it was probably its self-questioning...there is always a time or location displacement. Some sort of empty space that allows questioning issues that are different from the ones directly implied by the piece itself. In that regard, Conceptual Art became for me not just a reference but also a legacy that I could use and misuse for my work. I think that even if I am very interested in those kinds of practices my projects are not about them. They only use them to give form to a larger narrative that has to do with personal and social interests". —Mario Garcia Torres For his first solo exhibition with gallery.sora., Garcia Torres will present a new body of work related to time and unpredictability. He will also be exhibiting a new work entitled, "I Promise Every Time" in collaboration with Mexican musician Mario Lopez Landa at A@Agnes. |
Mario Garcia Torres, November 2007, 2007, Scratched black and white negative on slide mount.
Mario Garcia Torres, December 2007, 2007, Scratched black and white negative on slide mount. |
Mario Garcia Torres & Mario Lopez Landa, I Promise Every Time, 2007, Sound on 10" Vinyl. |
Paul Johnson, Jesus Loves You Cooling Spot, 2005, Paper on board, 160 x 76.5cm. |
Paul Johnson, Sister, 2006, Hand coloured paper on board, 75 x 55cm. |
Mizuma Art Gallery Paul Johnson creates paintings from intricately detailed constructions of collage. He uses a technique of hand-cutting and then interlocking tiny fragments of hand-coloured paper to create a surface that starts to communicate within the language of painting. The family is a central theme to Johnson’s work. This is not a family in the traditional sense, but the idea of constructing an imagined community. Each member is slowly handcrafted with devotion to expand this gathering of people. The coming together of this group through shared ideologies and an exploration of belief systems manifest themselves in the constructed auras that float, flow and happen around every person. Sensitive Chaos brings together for the first time Johnson's portraits’with his new collages that take the form of banners. These hanging constructions are an extension from his portraits, and allow the artist to start building the world where these people might exist. Johnson is imagining, with these banners, what a gathering might look like in the form of a parade or march. The banners are doubled sided, so as to allow for a further exploration on the reverse side into a world of abstraction, that hints at an inner space or possibly a view into deep space. These banners were created during an Artist Residency at Camden Arts Centre, London, 2007. Johnson has exhibited both in internationally and in the UK. He has had solo shows with One in the Other, London in 2003 and 2005. In 2008 he will be included in the group shows Living London, 176 space, Zabludowicz Collection, London; Brotherhoods, Kunstbunker, Numberg, Germany; and New Britannia, Saatchi Gallery, London. |
Paul Johnson, Brother (Be Calm), 2005, Paper on board, 45.5 x 66cm. |
Tadashi Kawamata, Walkway, 2007. |
Tadashi Kawamata, La Maison des Squatters, 1994, Annely Juda Fine Art.
Tadashi Kawamata, People’s Garden, Documenta IX, No. 11, 1992, Annely Juda Fine Art. |
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo Viewers, through their own movement, produce an exhibition that never ends. Tadashi Kawamata is a walkway. Tracing Kawamata’s journey of the past 30 years, from 1978 to 2008, we see that his career has been a continuing attempt to connect-and be a walkway between art and the everyday. To turn the art museum into a walkway is the nature of Kawamata’s new project. A walkway is an intermediate territory or threshold, a detour between two places, or else a contact zone. The art museum is something usually perceived as a storehouse or display area. By perceiving it as a walkway on which people come and go, how will Kawamata alter its spaces, its functions? With this keyword, walkway as a lamp, viewers can survey the works he has created since his student days, including projects unfinished and yet to begin. As they come and go on this walkway. They will also observe people in meetings, laboring, and engaging in dialogue, and may even become involved in such activity. Tadashi Kawamata’s Walkway is the practice of reconstructing experiences related to everyday life. Working without beginning or end, he creates an autonomous place in order to work free from limitation by goals or norms. Tadashi Kawamata was born in 1953. At the age of 28 he was chosen to be a participating artist in the Venice Bienniele. Having since taken part in Documenta and other international exhibitons, he has achieved high acclaim in Europe and internationally. Today he is an important artist and indispensible presence within a growing trend in art to value the production process and participation in Society and history. Kawamata's work transcends the art contem and expands to fields such as architecture and city planning, history, sociology, everyday communication, and even medical treatment. While an artist he served as the artistic director of the Yokohama Triennale in 2005 and undertook the planning of a large-scale international exhibition. |
Tadashi Kawamata, Favela Group F, 1992, Courtesy Serge Ziegler Galerie. |
Tadanori YOKOO |
SCAI Tadanori YOKOO was born in Nishiwaki City, Hyogo Prefecture in 1936. Since debuting with striking graphic design in the 1960s, Tadanori YOKOO has exerted a continual influence on contemporary Japanese culture. The vivid worlds depicted by YOKOO and his unique aesthetic sense have captured the hearts of many, providing the artist with wide-ranging acclaim and unparallel status as an artist. The first show, "Selected Works," will exhibit YOKOO's paintings dating up to about 2005, with an emphasis on his most famous works from the 1980s. This retrospective will trace the history of his paintings, providing an overview of YOKOO's wide variety of expression. In contrast, the second show, "New Paintings," will consist exclusively of new works by the artist, thereby allowing visitors to experience recent developments in YOKOO's continually evolving art in real time. YOKOO somehow continues to surprise by producing a constant stream of unforeseen works from a seemingly limitless imagination. We can only wait with bated breath and mounting anticipation to find out what surprising new works that rich source of ideas has created. We can be sure, however, that the exhibitions will combine to provide satisfyingly comprehensive coverage and a valuable overview of YOKOO's work as an artist. |
Tadanori YOKOO
Tadanori YOKOO, Museum-Fuji and Giraffes, 2005, Silkscreen, 28x42cm. |
Tadanori YOKOO, Asaoka Ruriko in the Nude, 1971,. 72.8 x 103 cm. |
Lady Maya and three attendants, Asuka Period, 7th century. |
Tokyo National Museum This exhibition traces the development of Buddhist statues from Gandhara (Ancient India), China, the Korean Peninsula, and Japan to provide insights about how Buddhist beliefs and statues developed in each region. Buddhism is a religion based on the teachings, known as dharma, of Prince Siddhartha Gautama, who lived in India around the 5th century B.C. He attained "Enlightenment" and became Sakyamuni Buddha when he was 35, and spent the rest of his life teaching his insights to others. After his death, his followers continued to practice and spread his teachings. Following his cremation, the Buddha's ashes and relics, known as sarira, were deposited in stupas, originally mound-like structures. Buddhist art developed when stupas were decorated with reliefs that depicted stories of Buddha and other designs. Initially, Buddha was not presented as a human figure. This changed around the 1st century A.D. and Buddhists began to worship the statues. Over time, Buddhism spread to other areas, where statues were crafted and worshipped in various forms. Siddh?rtha Gautama (Sanskrit; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual teacher from ancient India and the founder of Buddhism. He is generally recognized by Buddhists as the Supreme Buddha (Samm?sambuddha) of our age. The time of his birth and death are uncertain: most early 20th-century historians date his lifetime from circa 563 BCE to 483 BCE; more recently, however, at a specialist symposium on this question, the majority of those scholars who presented definite opinions gave dates within 20 years either side of 400 BCE for the Buddha's death, with others supporting earlier or later dates. Gautama, also known as ??kyamuni or Shakyamuni (“sage of the Shakyas”), is the key figure in Buddhism, and accounts of his life, discourses, and monastic rules were said to have been summarized after his death and memorized by the sangha. Passed down by oral tradition, the Tripitaka, the collection of teachings attributed to Gautama by the Theravada, was committed to writing about 400 years later. The prime sources of information regarding Siddh?rtha Gautama's life are the Buddhist texts. The Buddha and his monks spent four months each year discussing and rehearsing his teachings, and after his death his monks set about preserving them. A council was held shortly after his death, and another was held a century later. At these councils the monks attempted to establish and authenticate the extant accounts of the life and teachings of the Buddha following systematic rules. They divided the teachings into distinct but overlapping bodies of material, and assigned specific monks to preserve each one. This was done orally until three generations after the Buddha's death, when they were recorded. By this point, the monks had added or altered some material themselves, in particular magnifying the figure of the Buddha. The ancient Indians were not concerned with chronologies, being far more focused on philosophy. The Buddhist texts reflect this tendency, and we have a much clearer picture of what the Buddha thought than of the dates of the events in his life. These texts contain descriptions of the culture and daily life of ancient India which can be corroborated from the Jain scriptures, and make the Buddha's time the earliest period in Indian history for which substantial accounts exist.[5] The following is a summary of what is found in these texts. |
Seated Bodhisattva with one leg pendent, Gilt bronze, Three Kingdoms period, 7th century, Gift of The Ogura Foundation.
Head of Buddha from Khotan, Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, China, 3rd-4th century. |
Kengu-kyo Sutra (Buddhist scripture), Known as Ojomu, Attributed to the emperor Shomu, Nara Period, 8th century. |
