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Isao SUGIYAMA: SANTUARIO
Events
Written by KALONSNET Editor   
Published: July 15 2010

Courtesy of TOKYO GALLERY + BTAP | TOKYO, copyright © Isao Sugiyama

Sugiyama's first solo show in Japan in 20 years. On display will be several sculptures dating from the 1990s up until the present.

After graduating from the sculpture department at Tokyo Zokei University in 1977, Sugiyama joined the university's research department. In 1983, he completed his advanced degree and moved to Italy, where he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts, Carrara. After graduation, Sugiyama remained in Italy, living and working in Milan and Carrara while holding solo exhibitions of his work mainly in Europe and participating in various group shows and art fairs around the world.

Sugiyama's sculptures are constructed out of marble and wood. They feature house-like forms set against a backdrop of nature made out of raw, unprocessed marble that suggest the trappings and workings of civilization. The contrast between the wooden house that will soon rot away and disappear and the rocky outcrop exposed to a slow, gradual process of erosion are metaphors that evoke the different temporal rhythms that play out in nature and civilization. Gazing down upon the landscapes depicted in these works, the artist - or the viewer - experiences something akin to a religious vision that attempts to see the world in its totality.

During his time in Italy, Sugiyama has devoted himself to learning from and absorbing age-old Western sculptural traditions dating from ancient times that are still alive and well today, incorporating these influences into his own work. For him, the process of learning from all these masterpieces was also a way to question his own cultural origins and foundations. Sugiyama does not cling to his own identity in an attempt to resolve this question of cultural origin, however. By pursuing the ideal of purity in his sculptural forms, the dichotomy between "West" and "East" is dissolved. What emerges as a result is a transcendental worldview unfettered by the values and customs of a single civilization or religion. Although the structure and composition of Sugiyama's works may seem intimately familiar to Japanese viewers at first glance, there is also something mysterious and foreign about them. By overturning this framework and inverting the apparent duality found in these sculptures, however, Sugiyama opens them up to alternative readings. In short, the beautifully proportioned spaces in these works represent the Western art context that Sugiyama has chosen to immerse himself in - a divine sanctuary where vestiges of the East can still be found.

* The text provided by TOKYO GALLERY + BTAP | TOKYO.


Opened dates: July 21 - August 28, 2010
      * Tokyo Gallery+BTAP (Tokyo space) will be closed Aug 15 –22 for summer holidays.

Last Updated on July 21 2010
 

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