Shingo Francis at Misa Shin Gallery

Drawings

September 25th – November 7th, 2020

MISA SHIN GALLERY
3-9-11-1F Minamiazabu, Minato-ku,
Tokyo 106-0047
Tel: +81-(0)3-6450-2334
Email:info@misashin.com

www.misashin.com/

Jae-eun Choi
Kawamata Tadashi
Isozaki Arata
Francis Shingo
Shinoda Taro

MISA SHIN GALLERY is pleased to announce “Drawings”, a group exhibition of drawing works by five of the gallery’s artists, from Friday, September 25 through Saturday, November 7.

Jae-eun Choi’s new drawing No Borders Exist in Nature is a poem rendered in graphite on pages from old illustrated books with edges bleached over time by exposure to light. The paper, marked by layers of time, carries words that that lie at the foundation of Choi’s work, conveying thoughts about nature and our coexistence with nature as well as introspection about anthropocentrism.

The exhibition also presents Big Nest drawings and maquettes by Tadashi Kawamata, who participates in Dreaming of Earth-a project envisioned by Choi as a means of protecting the rich ecosystem in the demilitarized zone separating the Korean peninsula from North to South and of exploring coexistence between nature and humanity. Kawamata conceived of the idea of building a large bird’s nest on a cliff in the DMZ. It provides a safe place to rest for birds, and also for other animals and people, as well as forming a community consisting of people gathering at this stopping point on their travels.

For architect Arata Isozaki, a drawing, whether it is a sketch of an idea for architecture or a record of his travels, is the initial product of his thought processes. Nanjing Urban Planning is an architectural curation project in which several architects and artists appointed by Isozaki designed the individual architecture of the city, reflecting his unique approach of freeing architecture and cities from their conventional frameworks, and instead interpreting them in the context of art. The show also presents a watercolor of rugged karst hills that bring to mind the skyscrapers of Manhattan, which the architect painted on a boat on his first trip to Guilin, China in 1997.

Shingo Francis is an artist who lives and works in Los Angeles and Yokohama. Unable to travel between the cities during the COVID-19 pandemic, Francis began work on a new series called Daily Drawing, in which he produces one picture a day at his Los Angeles studio. In this series, the artist expresses his response to the global pandemic through the physical act of drawing by setting himself the task of creating a picture every day without fail, much like an act of meditation.

Taro Shinoda is mainly known as a creator of sculpture, videos, and installations, but he has also produced watercolors since the beginning of his career. The works feature plans and ideas for art projects, fragments of the artist’s memories, things that captured his curiosity, together with a naked man who could be the artist himself. Drawings produced with fresh colors and delicate lines under the constraints of life during the pandemic present a range of questions as a response to an uncertain future.

The act of drawing serves a range of purposes depending on the artist. A drawing can be a record of ideas, the starting point for a concept, a return to the origins of an artwork, or, sometimes, a way of looking in the mirror and exploring what is important with humility. “Drawings” at MISA SHIN GALLERY exemplifies this range through the works of these five artists.

Hours:
Tuesday-Saturday 12:00-19:00
Closed on Sunday, Monday, National Holiday