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Kenichi Yokono:Dancing Eyeballs
Events
Written by In the document   
Published: June 27 2013

vanitas _burning skull and flower (picture plate)
2013
30x30cm
Painted woodcut

Sometimes we are surprised to know that an unknown persona reside in the artist who we have been associated for years. This persona keeps a distance from happenings in the society no matter how disastrous it might be, cooly observing them and calculating how to construct its picture as a visual art works. This time we have found out such kind of unknown persona in Kenichi Yokono.

His statement for the exhibition, titled "Dancing Eyeballs", says: To me, eyeball symbolizes naked people. They all look at deferent direction and seem dancing randomly and frantically. Still I feel they are all connected and moving together toward some point.

By his "dancing eyeball" works, we can see through how people coped with a huge unexperienced disaster happened in March 11 of 2011. As you know the disaster, nearly 40,000 people killed by Tsunami caused by the 7.9 magnitude earthquake and 3 nuclear power plants exploded at Fukushima, made tremendous impact on all the Japanese and we have been still in confusion. Some stand against Nuclear power plants and the government, some simply get away from the critical zone, where radio active particles heavily fall down, with their young children, some shut themselves and some dare to stay at the destructed or critical zone with some resolution.

Yokono intentionally keeps distance from those circumstances around him and try to get the big picture of "the people in disaster" and to express it as "dancing eyeballs", that is, in his vision, "people are all confused and separated each other but connected somehow and as if moving together toward some direction" The point of his vision is in that he sees connection among people in confusion. We don't.
It may well be said that this connection is a fate of human kind, although no one knows whether it will lead us to more socially disastrous place or to a brand new harmonized society never seen before. Yokono makes no judgement on this issue. He just tries to depict as a cool-headed visual artist what we are.

As to the form of the works, you may find out strong Japanese traditional patterns surround eye balls or scull. Yokono's work has been highly evaluated as a well constructed and harmonized Japanese-American pop-mixed one with a tendency toward dark elements within our mind. His recent works, however, are more apt to place a weight on the Japanese patterns. As a result, the works reaches a level of awesomeness. Please expect his exhibition which starts in July.

[作家コメント]
To me, eyeball symbolizes naked people. They all look at deferent direction and seem dancing randomly and frantically. Still I feel they are all connected and moving together toward some point.

[作家プロフィール]
Kenichi Yokono

1972 Born in Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan
1997 BA. Kanazawa College of Art
2013 Live and work in Kanazawa

[Exhibitions]
1997 "Mermorous of monochrome" Asanogawa gallery ,Kanazawa
1998 "YOKONO Kenichi solo exhibition" Parc Katamati, Kanazawa
1999 "Little alter 1999" Meromeropotti, Kanazawa
2000
"Y/N Collaboration" Parc Katamati, Kanazawa
"Gen-ten" Ueno musium, Tokyo
"Working Point 2000" Kanazawa citizen art center Pit5, kanazawa
"ART,house,today" Kanazawa citizen art center,Satoyama no Ie, kanazawa
2001
"Shining at night" Oxydol, Kanazawa
"Nothing but art play" Suisei club nuit , Kanazawa
"R.C.Project/SIROTUMEKUSA" Sai-river, riverside, Kanazawa
2002
"LINK @ performing Square" Kanazawa citizen art center Performing Square, Kanazawa
"Poem, calling out of mind" Suisei club nuit, Kanazawa
2003
"ARTISTS BY ARTISTS " Mori musium,Roppongi hills, Tokyo
"GEISAI-4" Tokyo Big Site, Tokyo
"GEISAI-musium" Mori tower 24F, Tokyo
2004 "GEISAI-6" Tokyo Big Site, Tokyo
2005
"GEISAI-7" Tokyo Big Site Tokyo NY Public Art Fund director, Tom Eccles prize
"Party-the horror pop pieces" D&DEPARTMENT gallery wall, Tokyo, Osaka
"Printing ll" pepper's gallery , Tokyo
Artists in residence at McColl Center for visual art (Charlotte, NC)
Artist in residence at iscp (International studio and curatorial program, New York)
by ACC (Asian Cultural Council) fellowship2006
2006 "ULTRASONIC INTERNATIONAL" Mark Moore Gallery, Santa Monica CA
2007
"RED WORLD_Painted woodcuts" Nakameguro CAMARADA, Tokyo
"THE POP LOVES HANGA!" Ishikawa International Salon, Kanazawa
"Kenichi Yokono" Mark Moore Gallery, Santa Monica CA
2008 "innocence" unseal contemporary art ,Tokyo
2009 "dreamy gaze" Hilger contemporary,Vienna, Austria
2010
"Kenichi Yokono" 2x2projects,Amsterdam
"Squirm" unseal contemporary art ,Tokyo
"Japanese Group Show" IHN Gallery, Seoul
"Summer Group Exhibition" Joshua Liner Gallery, NY
2011
"GEKITOTSU" Group show, unseal contemporary
"Gateway Japan" THE TORRANCE ART MUSEUM, CA
"VOCA AWARD 2011" Ueno No Mori Museum, Tokyo
"Life and Emotion! Kenichi Yokono x Ken Tajima" Susaka Printing Museum, Nagano
"Red and Blue" Kenichi Yokono + Fuko Ueda Aki Gallery, Taipei
"RISE OF THE UNDERGROUND" Jeremy Fish + Kenichi Yokono Mark Moore Gallery

[Art fairs]
2006
"PLUSE Contemporary Art Fair", New York
"PULSE Contemporary Art Fair" , Miami
"Scope Art Fair" , New York
2010 "Art Fair Tokyo" unseal contemporary art ,Tokyo
2011 Asian Top Gallery Hotel Art Fair in HK
2012
"Plus The Art Fair 003", Tokyo
"Texas Contemporary Art Fair", Texas

Opening Party on July 5 18:00 to 20:00


全文提供:unseal contemporary
会期:July 5 - August 9
時間:11:00 - 19:00
Closed on Thursday from Monday
会場:unseal contemporary
Last Updated on July 05 2013
 

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