Adachi Kiichiro was born in 1979 in Osaka. After graduating from the Environmental Design department of Tama Art Univerisity in 2004, he changed his focus to art seeking more freedom of expression. Since then, Adachi has actively presented his works, including: "Toride Art Project 2006 End-time Disposal Station" in 2006, "Space for Your Future" (Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo) in 2007, and "When Lives Become Form～A Dialogue to the Future～Brazil/Japan" (Museum of Modern Art Sao Paulo) in 2008.

"Shangri-La 2" is a further developed version of the favorably reviewed "Shangri-La" exhibition, which was presented at ZAIM (Yokohama) as a prizewinning work of the Yokohama Creative Area Competition. In this series, plants are used as the primary material to create spaces enveloped in light that seem to be beautiful landscapes at first glance...yet, they give viewers a sense of disharmony. Through this installation, Adachi poses the question, "What is the ideal dwelling that we seek?". It aims to address questions that arose from his discomfort with the fad of "Eco・ LOHAS". Adachi says, "I've never liked having plants in my room. Maybe it's because the houseplant that we used to have in the living room when I was growing up had a nutritional supplement tube stuck in it and it looked like an IV drip to me." This installation casts light on the paradox of reality: what people believe to be the ideal dwelling is, in actuality, artificial man-made "nature" or in other words a "paradise facade". Yet, after posing such doubts, Adachi says,"But, if the heart is fulfilled, who can criticize" and proposes freeing sensibilities of viewers from restrictions.

Also, tableaus which chase after "Shangri-La" will be released at this exhibition. These new works are woven together from strong yet delicate lines that were painstakingly drawn on top of brilliant colors of paint. At the September 18 (Fri) grand opening, there will be a reception with the artist in attendance.

* The text provided by YUKA CONTEMPORARY.