Tokyo Gallery + BTAP is very pleased to announce Hiroto Kitagawa’s solo exhibition "Artificial World II: Suspended Beings", which runs from November 2nd through November 30th. This exhibition, which showcases Kitagawa’s latest work and is his second exhibition at our gallery, draws on traditional Japanese techniques in its use of glazes, while at the same time exploring new possibilities in sculpture via the unique form of the disc.
Hiroto Kitagawa was born in Shiga prefecture in 1967. After graduating from the Kanazawa College of Art in 1989, he travelled to Italy, inspired by figurative Italian sculptors such as Marino Marini. Kitagawa studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Milan and Carrara, where he was trained in traditional terracotta sculpting techniques. Since his return to Japan, Kitagawa has been a consistent exhibitor of sculptures both in Japan and overseas. Kitagawa’s works use acrylics to add life to the most primitive of media –clay – in order to depict people living in the present day, with some of these works featured at an exhibition at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa.
So far in his New Type and Post New Type series, Kitagawa has explored through sculpture the theme of the young generation in Japan’s contemporary society and the way the youth evolve in order to survive in a new age in the midst of social instability. Unlike Kitagawa’s previous exhibitions of which people were the motifs, this new series takes on what is a unique form in sculpture – the disc. On his reasons for choosing the disc, Kitagawa stated,
“Discs, which appear to be depicted in ancient cave paintings and religious paintings, may relate closely to the origins of civilisation and the future of humankind. The timescale and unparalleled, undiscovered technology they evoke present many issues that need to be faced by Japanese people today.” Kitagawa’s use of the floating property of discs to more clearly depict the gravity embodied in his sculptures anticipates new developments of this medium.
The floating human forms exhibited alongside the disc sculptures are an attempt to create a new type of figuration, with an emphasis on anti-gravity. The glazed, floating bodies, illuminated in their boxes, are a contrast with Kitagawa’s previous works which stood firmly on the ground. The floating sculptures appear to be a metaphor for people in unstable modern times, and to ironically depict the modern world, in flux as it attempts to find new order and balance.
The history of sculpture, which since ancient times has used mythology and religion as its themes, also reflects a strand of philosophy to constantly question the human condition. This exhibition is an opportunity for us to see the latest works from an artist who has continually strived to create three-dimensional depictions of Japanese people in modern day society.

●Opening reception: Saturday, November 2nd, 16:00 -18:00