ShugoArts

Shigeo TOYA

Woods X

2016.12.16 Fri - 2017.2.5 Sun

Shigeo Toya  Woods X
December 16 Fri, 2016 − February 5 Sun, 2017
Opening Party: December 16 Fri, 17:00-19:00
Venue: ShugoArts

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A woods is a space with an intertwined thickness formed not only by trees, but various living things, water, air, sound, smell, and signs. It breathes and is rooted in the folds of the earth, which is woven out of mountains and valleys. The sightline exchanged between the mountains and valleys in the woods forms a woven space of diagonal lines and the density of light and shade creates a multi-centric structure. The vertical and horizontal lines that appear in this multi-center also support the diagonal structure. I attempted to incorporate this structure as a “woods” within the sculptural structure. The sightline of the forest gradually arouses emotion as a matrix of tactility, and though conceptual, it triggers an emotional state of reciprocal motion. This is where the body intervenes. Air, water, and the rhythm of sound drift across the surface of the material via the body, and slowly take shape as a sculpture.

Shigeo Toya, November 2016

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Relief-style sculptures dating back to the Mesopotamian era, female molds recalling the torsos of people and animals that were preserved as cavities in the ruins at Pompeii, Michelangelo’s David, Koun Takamura (1852-1934) and his son Kotaro’s (1883-1956) work, which embodied the struggle Edo-type carvings on the cusp on the modern Meiji era and Rodin-style, modern Western sculpture, Medardo Rosso’s(1858-1928) work, which might be seen as the antithesis of Rodin(1840-1917), Arte Povera, Mono-ha, etc.

After undertaking an analytical study of art from all times and places, and arriving at his own original view of sculptural history, Shigeo Toya’s (b.1947) practice occupies a special place as constructive sculptural expression for the 21st century.

Appreciating sculpture requires a toughness unlike the literary approach that can sometimes be useful in understand a painting. Takaaki Yoshimoto (1924-2012) concluded his book Takamura Kotaro with the line “the incomprehensibility of sculpture.” As this suggests, it is necessary to access a different sensory channel than the one we rely on when looking at a painting.

It is impossible to overemphasize the fact that Shigeo Toya’s wholly unique sculptural art came to fruition in the Far East nation of Japan. In this exhibition, we present the tenth work in Toya’s Woods series, which he has continued to pursue as his lifework since making the first piece in 1987, in ShugoArts’ new space. In conjunction with this work, the gallery’s second room will be used to present some of the artist’s latest small works as well as works from the past.

Shugo Satani, ShugoArts
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Shigeo Toya Woods X(detail), 2016

Shigeo TOYA
Woods Ⅹ

December 16 Fri, 2016 − February 5 Sun, 2017

*Winter holidays : Dec 26 Mon, 2016 − Jan 9 Mon, 2017

Opening Party : December 16 Fri, 17:00 – 19:00

Opening hours : 11: 00-19:00(12:00-18:00 on Sun., closed on Mon. and Public Holidays)


 

Shigeo TOYA artist page >>

 

Shigeo TOYA works >>