KANSUKE YAMAMOTO

Posted on 2016-12-19

Yamamoto created, between the early 1930s and 1980s, avant-garde photographic works that manifested his sharp eye for social criticism and a unique poetic sensibility. He was one of the leading figures of Surrealism photography in Japan. He used a variety of methods, including collage and photomontage. His subjects ranged from objects arranged in extraordinary ways and detailed close-ups of various materials. From the 1950s, he also created paintings, sculptures and serial theatrical photographs. This will be his second solo show with Taka Ishii Gallery following his first at Taka Ishii Gallery New York last spring. It will feature 4 sculptural and 28 photographic works.

Yamamoto began writing poetry in 1930 as the latest Western art movements and theories, such as Dadaism, Bauhaus, Neue Sachlichkeit and Surrealism were introduced to Japan and avant-garde activities flourished in various artistic fields under their influence. Through exposure to the poetry magazine CINÉ published by Chiryu Yamanaka, who was a leading theorist of Surrealism in Japan, Yamamoto’s interest in modernist art deepened. Yamamoto began aiming “to practice Surrealism in photography” in 1931, when modern photographic expression was first established under the rubric of New Photography in Japan. That same year, the young Yamamoto helped establish the photographers’ group “Independent Photography Research Association” along with Mitsuya Okonogi and others and began seriously searching for new photographic expressions.

Opposite – “Heart in Motion – Shadow of Happiness”, 1950

Exhibition runs through to February 18th, 2017

Taka Ishii Gallery Photography / Film
AXIS Building 2F, 5-17-1
Roppongi, Minato-ku
106-0032
Tokyo
Japan

www.takaishiigallery.com

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MARK SELIGER

Posted on 2016-12-19

On Christopher Street is a portrait series of transgender individuals shot between 2013 and 2016 with a medium format camera in the West Village of New York City. Bree Benz is statuesque in a black shift dress posed calmly in the center of the road. M. David Soliven’s business casual cardigan catches a few rain drops outside a row of walk-up apartments. Next to the Hudson River, Vickyana Torres cocks her head and stares straight into the lens; a burning cigarette nestled between her lacquered fingernails. Adrian Torres and Carmen Carrera stand with their two children on a curved sidewalk. Tony Zosherafatain’s curly chest hair tucks into his tight-white Fruit of the Looms.

Christopher Street is a known safe-haven for all sexual orientations and gender identities. It is home to Stonewall Inn – site of the 1969 Stonewall Uprising – recently designated by President Obama as the first national monument to honor the L.G.B.T.Q. civil rights movement.

The project comprises 72 portraits and accompanying stories published in its totality in On Christopher Street: Transgender Stories (Rizzoli, New York). Janet Mock writes in the book’s foreword, “It was in the Village, on Christopher Street and the nearby piers, where many trans and queer people first shared space with others like them. For generations, these places provided mirrors for those who rarely saw reflections of themselves. On Christopher Street, there were multitudes of potential selves: transgender, transsexual, non-binary, genderqueer, femme, butch, cross-dresser, drag king or queen, and other gender identities and sexual orientations that challenge social norms.”

Opposite – Jamel Young + Leiomy Maldonado, 2015

Exhibition runs through to February 25th, 2017

Von Lintel Gallery
2685 South La Cienega Boulevard
Los Angeles
CA 90034

www.vonlintel.com

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MASAO YAMAMOTO – TORI

Posted on 2016-12-19

The works included in Tori, the Japanese word for “bird”, span the breadth of Yamamoto’s career, from 1994 to the present and include both hand-printed photographs and hanging scrolls. Intimately scaled and masterfully printed, Yamamoto’s toned photographs bear evidence of the artist’s hand where he has torn the paper, applied flecks of gold paint, or dashes of red and blue ink. Yamamoto’s newest works include Kakejiku, a traditional Japanese hanging scroll. Printed on handmade Washi paper, the photographs have been mounted onto a scroll using classical techniques and materials such as kimono silk, handmade papers and wheat starch paste.

In conjunction with the exhibition, Radius Books has released Yamamoto’s 10th book, also titled Tori. The monograph combines carefully sequenced photographs with a selection of poems by Wallace Stevens, Seamus Heaney, Emily Dickinson, William Carlos Williams and others. With Tori, Yamamoto seeks to capture the essence of birds, while remarking on the visceral connection and similarities between these creatures and humanity. Ranging from a pigeon contemplating its reflection in a pool of glassy water to an eagle flying high above the Mongolian mountains, Yamamoto’s birds suggest the fragility, beauty and ultimate mortality of all life.

Opposite – Untitled #1683, 2016

Exhibition runs through to January 28th, 2017

Yancey Richardson Gallery
525 West 22nd Street
NY 10011
New York, NY
New York

www.yanceyrichardson.com

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