This exhibition of Asami Kiyokawa (born in Hyogo Prefecture in 1979), an artist actively playing a part in wide-ranging activities from art direction to production of artworks, is her first major exhibition on a museum scale.

As a student of Bunka Fashion College, she worked as a model for fashion magazines. Around the time of graduation, she began to produce her original works making good use of her handiwork, using thread and cloth as materials and embroidery on photographs. Including those artworks, she is now creating quality pieces in different fields—costume design, space design, video, advertisement, illustration, etc. She was awarded the Best Debutant of the Year 2004. (The Men’s Fashion Unity started this award to give most promising new creators and artists, who are supported by and have had a significant impact on society, culture, industry and people at large.) In VOCA Exhibition 2010 (a showcase of two-dimensional works by promising artists selected from all over Japan), she won an award of excellence ushering a new phase in the contemporary art scene. Her recent works including “AKB48 x Bijo Saishu,” (Kodansha Ltd., 2010), a book of photographs using AKB48 as models, “5 STITCH STORIES,” (Pie Books, 2010), a collection of her works to commemorate the 10th anniversary of her debut as an artist, and “Another Place” (Little More, 2011) are much talked about. She is now in the spotlight as an artist.

In this exhibition, the whole gallery is transformed into “Asami Kiyokawa’s World,” revealing her versatile talents to the full, where woman’s desire is expressed alluringly and beautifully.

* In this gallery, we have introduced solo- and group-exhibitions by both international artists such as Julian Opie and James Turrell as well as leading Japanese artists like Tatsuo Miyajima and Katsuhiko Hibino. Kiyokawa is the youngest of all as an artist giving a solo exhibition using the whole museum.

Asami Kiyokawa PROFILE
Asami Kiyokawa, an artist who creates works using cloth and thread and embroidery on photographs, has many fans of different age groups for the unique world she creates. She is also actively working as an art director to produce many CD jackets and advertisements. Additionally she produces “Bijo Saishu” (FRaU/Kodansha Ltd.), in which actresses popular at the moment are turned to animals and plants, and co-produces the cover visual of “SUBARU” (Shueisha Inc.) serially with well-known writers. Her major books include “AKB48 x Bijo Saishu” (Kodansha Ltd.) and picture book “Night on the Galactic Express” (Little More). “Another Place” (Little More) is her latest book. She won a prize at VOCA 2010. Her group-exhibitions include “Stitch by Stitch, Traces I Made with Needle and Thread” (Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum, 2009) and “Made by Hand, Hanae Mori and young artists” (Art Tower Mito, 2009). http://www.asamikiyokawa.com/

* The text provided by Contemporary Art Center, Art Tower Mito.

Period: Thursday, November 3, 2011 - Sunday, January 22, 2012
Venue: Contemporary Art Center, Art Tower Mito