Marianne Boesky Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new work by Yuichi Higashionna in the project space. This is the artist’s first solo exhibition in New York.
Higashionna creates an installation of intertwining light sculptures, shadowy stenciled paintings, and striped and moiré patterning. Inspired by the interior decorating of Japanese homes in the 1970’s during a period of economic prosperity, the artist explores theaesthetic of fanshii. Referring to that which is kitsch or odd, almost to the point of tackiness, fanshii ultimately reflected Japanese compulsive admiration for Western culture.
Higashionna’s installations exude a sentiment of the familiar but strange. His excessively radiant light works, piecing together a magnitude of cheap circular bulbs to create oversized ‘grand’ chandeliers, pay homage to the Japanese ‘fluorescent’ culture. Layered plastic mirrors and wood-paneling wallpaper push the 70’s tacky aesthetic. Higashionna plays at revealing and camouflaging his various light sources, dividing up the space to a dizzying effect and piling his exaggerated forms upon each other.
Yuichi Higashionna lives and works in Tokyo. He had a solo exhibition at Yumiko Chiba Associates in Tokyo in April 2008, and was included in the group show, “The Masked Portrait” curated by Midori Nishizawa at the gallery in January 2008.