Marianne Boesky Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of new work by Yoshitomo Nara. This will be the artist's fourth solo show at the gallery.
For this exhibition, Yoshitomo Nara couples new paintings and drawings with large-scale sculptures created with his collaborative group, YNG. Nara has worked together with YNG (formally known as Yoshitomo Nara + graf) over the past six years on solo exhibitions in Osaka, Seoul, Jakarta, The Hague, Berlin, Málaga, and Gateshead, amongst others.
Constructed from reclaimed wood, the forms of the two immense sculptures recall stylized tannenbaums, with their roof shingling evoking exaggerated tree needles. Small cut-out windows and hanging lights punctuate the sculptures, providing them with the feel of a house or some surreal abode. The structures are hollow and present interiors replete with drawings and paintings all created in the artist's hand, and with a multitude of stuffed animals from fans selected by the artist. Though Nara has previously exhibited these types of moveable spaces before, the dwellings in this exhibition have a quieted sentiment to them. Each object within feels carefully considered in its placement. The frenzy of personal effects including photographs, cd's and beer cans, all evoking the turmoil and inspiration in the artist studio, has been removed. Instead the stillness of the structures, with their looming spires, presents a protective shell to the interiors. Though possible to peer into the structures and glimpse their holdings, they cannot be entered and the viewer must be content to remain on the exterior.
The paintings, rendered on both canvas and wooden billboards, depict lone portraits of dreamy-eyed figures. Pencil and colored pencil drawings on found envelopes and discarded papers similarly parse the psychological landscape of their subjects.
Yoshitomo Nara lives and works in Tochigi, Japan. He will have a solo exhibition at the Asia Society in New York in September of 2010. An extensive catalogue will be published by Harry N. Abrams and the Asia Society at the time of his exhibition in 2010.