nca | nichido contemporary art

Place: nca | nichido contemporary art
Date: June 24th (Fri.) –-July 30th (Sat.)
Opening hours: Tue. – Sat. 11:00 – 19:00 / Closed on Sun., Mon. and National Holidays
Reception: June 24th (Fri.) 18:00 – 20:00

Artists:
Yoi Kawakubo | Toshiyuki Konishi | Yuri Tsuiki | Kota Hirakawa | Kenji Fujii | Akane Morishita | Keiso Yo

nca | nichido contemporary art is delighted to present its annual group exhibition “Identiity XII- curated by Taro Amano -”.
Under the supervision of our guest curator Taro Amano, we are showing the artworks of the 7 artists listed above.

Identity XII - Memorandum on Sublime

The word “sublime” which features in the title embodies the main theme of this exhibition, however, this does not imply that each artist’s work has been created in order to adhere to such concept. Rather than concerning the creative side of it, sublime is something that belongs to the realm of emotions “recipients” of the artworks must feel.
In his famous “Art e Bios” art critic Atsushi Okada tells us that Delacroix considered Theodore Gericault’s painting series, “Anatomical Pieces”, the first example in the history of art of paintings not characterized by a central theme while representing pure fragments of the sublime.
As clearly depicted by Delacroix’s words, leaving behind an era where aspects such as “myth”, “religion” and “history” were subjects of great importance, with the advent of the 19th century paintings experienced the loss of such main themes leading to a theme-less trend that has continued up to the present.
It can be argued that, from an era where main subjects were generated by the shared perception of specific recipients (royal and aristocratic classes, or the Church), and came precisely to assure their status, as the art began to pursue a new path reaching out to an unlimited audience, that shared perspective, main themes as recollections-equal-visual images that must be shared by the collectivity, got lost instead.
Now, in an era shared by many people, main themes start to rise from the expression of the creative process, each of them with their own individually identified nature.
It is here that a certain common sense comes to life, where viewers facing each single artwork do not only empathize with the theme radiating from such individual creations, but they also experience unutterable empathy that goes beyond joy and sorrow.
We live in a society that prioritizes the “whole” abandoning the “singularity”, where anti-intellectual tendencies are increasing, with scenarios where the human knowledge falls short as observed in the nuclear plant accident.
This is why we urge to experience the emotions evoked by facing individual expression.

Taro Amano

Taro Amano
Curator Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama, Japan
Taro Amano is the Curator in Chief at the Yokohama Museum of Art. He has organized numerous exhibitions on contemporary art and photography including Japanese and Asian art, Like Yoshitomo Nara, Scream Against the Sky, Louise Bourgeois. He was also the curator of the Yokohama Triennale 2005 and head of curatorial team of 2011, 2014.

Supported by: ARATANIURANO / Noriko Yamakoshi (Studio Aufheben)