3 3/4 inches depth
Marianne Boesky Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition of new work by Yoshitomo Nara. This will be the artist’s second solo show in New York.
The exhibition, titled Saucer Tales, contains 12 paintings made on saucer- shaped, wall mounted fiberglass structures. The fiberglass surfaces are covered with a patchwork of small pieces of canvas. He will also exhibit one new sculpture and a new series of etchings. In all these works, Nara continues with the subject matter he is well known for – devilishly sweet and menacing children.
Nara was inspired to make paintings on a saucer shape after seeing a giant advertisement made for a coffee company at his commercial fabricator. He was taken with this shape because there are no corners, no top or bottom, no left or right. Nara says of this form, “if the things I have been drawing in a square were placed in it, it becomes less of a picture - it might look as if there’s a hole in the wall. Because the depth perception becomes ambiguous, I thought perhaps I could achieve the effect that looks as if there actually is an opening, and inside there is a child.” (Quoted from H magazine, and translated by Yuko Sakata.)
Concurrently at Kennedy Boesky Photographs, a selection of Nara’s recent photographs will be on view. In them we see the actual children, animals and places he encounters. His photographs stand on their own as an independent body of work. They have a snap shot quality, often blurry and seemingly spontaneous, yet also perfectly composed. These photographs offer an opportunity to see through his eyes and glimpse the complex experience of childhood that infuses his paintings.
Nara recently was treated to a major survey exhibition that traveled to five Japanese museums organized by the Yokohama Museum of Art. His work will be included in the concurrent exhibition Drawing Now: Eight Perspectives at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Opening in September 2003, Nara will have his first US touring survey. This exhibition is being organized by the Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art and will travel to the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia and The Contemporary Museum, St. Louis.