(page top)

Motohide Takami

Burning House, 2019

Oil and chalk on wood panel

63.8 x 63.8 x 1.8 inches (162 x 162 x 4.4 cm)

(top)

Kengo Takahashi

flower funeral - cat - , 2020

Aluminium

2.7 x 2.3 x 3.5 inches (6.8 x 5.8 x 8.8 cm)

(middle)

Toru Tanno

†carp, 2019

Archival Giclée print on wood panel

28.6 x 41.7 inches (72.8 x 106 cm)

(bottom)

Asako Tabata

Amabie, 2020

Oil on canvas

9.5 x 13.1 inches (24.2 x 33.3 cm)

SEIZAN Gallery New York is pleased to announce the reopening of our space in Chelsea, NYC, with a group exhibition, On This Shore.

The exhibition will open September 10, 2020. It features works by a group of emerging Japanese artists exploring new visions of survival in difficult times. 

The exhibition title, On The Shore is in response to Fire On Another Shore, the solo exhibition of painter Motohide Takami we presented last year. The original title is from a Japanese expression, ironically indicating tragic incidents as somebody else’s business. Takami presented this series to question the limitations of human empathy when a particular community or country suffers calamity. The artist experienced The Great Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan in 2011 when he was a student in art school. The experience and its aftermath powerfully impacted his choice of subject matter. Now, several months into the global pandemic of COVID-19, ever more complex questions are raised by Takami’s paintings. Fire is no longer faraway on another shore, but is burning on every shore now. No one is physically, emotionally, economically or politically immune to this calamity. 

To reopen our gallery in New York, we have selected works by four emerging Japanese artists (Yasushi Ikejiri, Toshiyuki Kajioka, Kengo Takahashi, Toru Tanno) along with a painting from Takami’s exhibition. Their works engage the push and pull of natural/artificial, normal/abnormal, and life/death, occurring at this difficult time. They emerge stronger now in the quest for survival through a historic disaster.

The show also includes a collection spin-off from the online exhibition we presented during the closure of our gallery: JO SAI SHO FUKU (Ward Off Calamities, Invite Good Luck): Gods and Yokai In Time of Pandemic. Five artists (Ruiji Aiba, Yukiko Hata, Ikejiri, Shunsuke Ochi, Asako Tabata) from that show contribute reimagined figures of “yokai.” These spiritual creatures appeared in old Japanese tales and saved people from Pandemic. Amabie is a “yokai” creature who became a mascot of Pandemic on the internet. The whimsical mermaid with three leg-fins is believed to appear offshore and predicts abundant harvest or pandemic. The five artists presents their playful version of Amabie and similar “Yokai” figures. 

The gallery will be open to the public from 11am-6pm on Thursday to Saturday, and open by appointment from Sunday through Wednesday. Please email info@seizan-gallery.com. Maximum 4 visitors at a time are permitted in the gallery. Masks are required. Hand sanitizer is available at the entrance.