Lisbeth Thalberg
NANZUKA is delighted to announce the opening of the collaborative exhibition titled “GUTAI x POP UNDERGROUND,” curated in partnership with Yoshiaki Inoue Gallery and displayed at CADAN Yurakucho. The exhibition has been thoughtfully curated by Akihito Inoue, bringing together a confluence of historical and contemporary art forms.
Jiro Yoshihara, the pioneering founder and leader of the postwar art movement known as Gutai, famously inspired the younger generation of artists with his bold exhortation: “Do not imitate others,” and instead, “create what has never been done before.” These empowering words provided these artists with the audacity and self-assurance to craft their unique means of artistic expression and pursue distinctive creative paths. By freeing themselves from external influences, they could heed their inner voices and strive to materialize those internal visions.
NANZUKA has taken a more expansive approach, championing artists who have garnered recognition predominantly outside the Japanese art landscape, and offering them a stage in the global art arena. In an academically rigorous manner, NANZUKA bridges the dynamic energies of contemporary art with elements of pop culture and related disciplines such as design, illustration, street art, manga, fashion, and music.
“GUTAI x POP UNDERGROUND” represents a synergistic collaboration between six Gutai artists and eight emerging talents from NANZUKA. The exhibition investigates how the individualism and creativity exhibited by members of Gutai have left an indelible mark on contemporary artists, and how these modern artists continue to push the boundaries of artistic expression. This exhibition draws extensively from the Gutai collection of Yoshiaki Inoue Gallery, featuring works by luminaries such as Jiro Yoshihara, known for his iconic circle motifs; Sadamasa Motonaga, who was captivated by the mysteries of nature and famously poured paint directly onto canvas to create abstractions reminiscent of flowing rivers and cellular division; Shozo Shimamoto, celebrated for his radical performances involving the smashing of paint-filled bottles against canvas and the creation of “holes” by puncturing newspaper-covered canvas; Kazuo Shiraga, who, disenchanted with conventional painting methods, developed a technique of painting with his feet while suspended by a rope over a canvas on the floor; Takesada Matsutani, who, based in Paris, has been creating works for over fifty years by pouring vinyl glue onto canvas and then darkening it with pencils; and Etsuko Nakatsuji, who transitioned from ad design to become a prolific artist in painting, sculpture, and printmaking, frequently using the human form as her subject.
Representing NANZUKA are works by a diverse group of artists including Tetsuya Nakamura, who studied lacquer at Tokyo University of the Arts and has since explored various forms that examine how visual information impacts living beings; Hiroki Tsukuda, whose geometric compositions collage urban landscapes, architecture, and symbolic natural elements, all depicted with a futuristic aesthetic; Ryuichi Ohira, who delves into the inherent properties of materials to construct “undefined forms” that channel the primal and irrational human impulse to create; Makoto Taniguchi, who aims to capture his sense of reality by focusing on the invisible yet tangible aspects that lie beyond such binaries as creator and viewer, image and material, and the real and the virtual; Kenichiro Fukumoto, who draws inspiration from natural elements such as plants, spores, cells, and fossils for his oil paintings, drawings, and sculptures that combine woodcarving with ceramics; Kotaro Abe, who blends pigments and mediums with everyday food ingredients like black sesame and tapioca flour to create his own unique “paint”; Yoshiki Muramatsu, whose work is influenced by a broad spectrum of postwar and contemporary culture, resulting in illustrations, flyers, posters, photographs, videos, and animations; and Ryunosuke Okazaki, an artist and fashion designer whose work explores rituals and acts of prayer, and who possesses a vision that transcends conventional frameworks.
