Some Like It Witty
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Some Like It Witty
22 November – 23 December 2014 Gallery EXIT is pleased to present group exhibition Some Like It Witty, the first collaboration curated by Japanese contemporary art collector Daisuke MIYATSU. Participating artists include Tetsuro KANO, Yuko MOHRI, Yu NISHIMURA, Yoshinori NIWA, Nobuyuki OKANO, Kazuya SAKAMOTO, Yusuke SHIBATA, Hikaru SUZUKI, Keisuke TADA, Mayumi TANABE, Naoki TOMITA, Yusuke YAMATANI. "It's been a long while that the works created by Japanese artists are classified with, monotonously, the Kawaii style. Surely among these artists, some of them do unconsciously create incessantly in this Kawaii style. This is also the reason why the common trait between young Japanese artists has gone blearily indistinguishable nowadays. The Japanese aesthetic concept 'mononoaware' since ancient Japan is a subjective pathos extracted from objective matter and object. It births the unique Japanese sentimentality towards the world which is both elegant and exquisite. The morale among Japanese people remains depressive abreast the consistent recession across the country. The post-311 Tōhoku earthquake also gives rise to a prevailing helplessness among the people. Now the Japanese could only confront the both entangling and brutal reality with a sense of humor. This humor is hence evolved into a spiritual power, the so-called 'jest'. I hereby wish that every audience can share a sentimental hint of 'mononoaware' residing within the works of these featured artists and a polarized sense of 'jest' radiated from their works." - Daisuke MIYATSU With 20 years of experience in the arts and more than 300 works in his collection, Daisuke MIYATSU, the "salaryman-collector", was born in 1963 in Tokyo. The first work of his "salaryman collects" was by Yayoi Kusama in 1994. In 1999, in collaboration with Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster and Shimabuku, MIYATSU started the Dream House project - a personal residence and collection of hundreds of artworks. MIYATSU's collection has been exhibited both at home and abroad over the years. In 2011, a large-scale exhibition of his collection was organized at the Taipei Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA Taipei). His latest publication includes Gendai Art Keizaigaku (Contemporary Art Economics), published by Kobunsha. He currently works in a Tokyo-based company. |