SPECTRUMS

EVENT DESCRIPTION

AISHONANZUKA is please to announce a new exhibition “SPECTRUMS”, a three artists group exhibition by Jess Johnson, Oliver Payne and Taku Obata. The exhibition will be on view from 25 Jun to 16 Jul, 2022.

 

ABOUT THE ARTIST / ORGANISER

Jess Johnson

Born in New Zealand, lives and works in New Zealand and New York.

Jess Johnson is a New Zealand born artist whose artwork reflects ideologies of technology and flesh, both ancient and futuristic. Extending into installation, video, VR, and fashion, her fictional world is initially developed by hand through her drawings. She lives and works between New York and New Zealand. Johnson’s elaborate drawings works are characterized by their depictions of genderless humanoid figures from alternative realms, alien creatures with facial features reminiscent of bats, and worm-like tubes snaking across architectural structures from times unknown –luring viewers into a highly condensed illusion where elements that influenced her such as intercultural patterns and symbols, horror movies and science-fiction, and the world of early video games, integrate and coalesce.

Oliver Payne

Born in 1979 in England, lives and works in Los Angels, USA.

After studying at the Kingston University Faculty of Art and Design in England, Oliver Payne began working in collaboration with Nick Relph during the late 1990s, together creating video and installation work based on skating, hardcore music, punk, graffiti, and other street culture. He has had an extraordinarily bright career as a young artist, together with Relph winning the Golden Lion award in the young artist category at the 50th Annual Venice Biennale (2003) and having exhibited their collaborative work in solo exhibitions at Kunsthaus Zürich (2004) and at the Serpentine Gallery in London (2006). In Japan, they have showcased their work at Art Tower Mito (Lonely Planet exhibition, 2004) and at the Yokohama Triennale (2008). In 2009, Payne and Relph moved on to work separately as solo artists, and Payne has since been creating work mainly around the subject of Japanese subcultures.

Taku Obata

Born in 1980 in Japan, lives and works in Japan.

The work of Taku Obata revolves around the body in motion, notably in breakdance. Deeply connected to B-Boy culture in Japan, Obata captures, exaggerates and deforms the human body in dancing movement, emphasizing the bodies’ shapes, poses, and physiques, while eliminating the emotional or inner elements of the figures. His persistent interest in the body is also reflected in the medium he chooses — wood sculpture. By linking this physically demanding and time-consuming Japanese traditional technique with the modernity of his subject that emanates from vibrant hip-hop culture, Obata embodies a dynamic decomposition of body and movement within a broader cultural context.