K10
Yumiko Chiba Associates
（Tokyo）
Printed on thick or uneven materials, the new works here are of complex stratified construction, entwining matter and image, solid and smooth. Flowing into these spaces and mingling there are materials such as paints and photos, plus miscellaneous images, foreign objects and even fiction, forming what could be described as painting as a visual state or environment physically encircling the viewer with a sculptural, relief-like spatiality and substance, by interpreting painting as material.
“The row of “p”s and “o”s in the title start off correctly tracing the steps to make a work, then halfway through, turn into meaningless fiction. Photo, on, phenomenon, oil, paint, of, picture, object, panel, over, pour, or, print, opposite, planet, optimize, paper… I think of these works not as paintings but sculptures that craft spaces from collage.
Forming temporary units, spaces, histories, groups, values that then scatter and change into other things. I take what appeared to be a single, closed thing, dismantle it, and seeing the thing itself as material make spaces within its layers to create room for foreign objects and fiction to insinuate themselves.”
Gallery Information
Yumiko Chiba Associates was launched as an artist management office in 1998 in Tokyo, and has been organizing many contemporary art shows at the galleries and museums inside and outside of Japan. Opened a commercial gallery in 2010, the gallery has held many solo shows for the established artists; Jiro Takamatsu, Beat Streuli, along with other artists in the young generation. The gallery also represents the Estate of important artists in Japanese contemporary art history such as Jiro Takamatsu, Masafumi Maita and Katsuro Yoshida. The gallery has published many research booklets with critical essays, contributing to interpretations of artists in terms of art history. Relocated to Roppongi in 2022, the gallery also launched the Roppongi ArsCuria hub for artistic and critical discussion.
