Isozaki Arata, The Museum of Modern Art, Gunma, 1983, Silkscreen print, 55 x 55 cm
Arata Isozaki: Form and Spirit
Wednesday, November 2 -Saturday, December 24, 2022
Opening Reception: Wednesday November 2, 18:00-20:00
Tuesday-Saturday 12:00-19:00 (Closed on Mon, Sun, Public holidays)
*During Art Week Tokyo, open hours will be changed to the following.
Thursday November 3 – Sunday November 6, 10:00 – 19:00 (Open in all days throughout the event.)
Installation View
Press Release
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MISA SHIN GALLERY is pleased to announce Arata Isozaki: Form and Spirit, a solo exhibition by Arata Isozaki from Wednesday November 2 through Saturday December 24, 2022.
This exhibition is based on architecture from the architect’s signature Museum of Modern Art, Gunma of the 1970s to his works of the 1990s such as Art Tower Mito. Ex post facto, Isozaki abstracted the fundamental concept behind each project, visualizing the concepts predominantly in the form of drawings and silkscreens.
“Architecture does not include topographical characteristics, the smell of life, or the background vulgarity of utility poles and hoardings. It consists only of spaces with pure geometry and structures with single forms. That simple state can be fixed in silkscreen prints. The Reduction Series presents the architecture in its primitive form, reduced to only geometrical bodies, frames, and to primary colors and values.”
——Arata Isozaki
Beginning from the completed form of architecture and going backward to extract fundamental concepts reveals abstract forms such as the cubes of the Museum of Modern Art, Gunma, the cylinders and semicylinders seen in the Kitakyushu Central Library and Kamioka Town Hall, the cuboids of the Kitakyushu City Museum of Art, and the regular tetrahedrons of Art Tower Mito. Isozaki’s Reduction series shaves off elements that were added to the architecture during the design process or after completion, including three-dimensional internal spaces, experiences and views that only come to life through the intervention of human actors, and interactions with the surrounding environment. By reducing the architecture to the state in which the image first took form in the architect’s hands, and visualizing that state, Isozaki is also re-interpreting his earlier work.
In addition to the two-dimensional renderings of abstract forms produced by this reduction process, Isozaki has experimented with expressing the forms in three dimensions, presented in this exhibition as 3D prints of Art Tower Mito and Hara Museum ARC. Other exhibits include pastel drawings.
In addition to architecture, during a career spanning more than half a century, Arata Isozaki has explored and applied his creativity to areas such as theory, art, design, and theater, transcending genres and periods. This exhibition gives a glance at both the spirit behind his work and some of the forms that it can take.
Isozaki Arata
Born in Oita, Japan in 1931. Graduated from Architectural Faculty of University of Tokyo in 1954. Established Arata Isozaki & Associates in 1963. As a leading international figure in architecture, Isozaki has designed numerous works such as the Museum of Modern Art, Gunma, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, and Palau Sant Jordi, 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympic Games Stadium. Recent works include Qatar National Convention Center, Allianz Tower in Milan, Shanghai Symphony Hall, Hunan Provincial Museum, University of Central Asia, and Urban design of Zhengzhou City, Henan Province in China. He served as commissioner of Japanese Pavilion, Biennale di Venezia International Exhibition of Architecture. He is active in curating architecture and art exhibitions worldwide. He has juried many international architectural design competitions and also acted as a chairman at symposiums. Recent exhibitions include a solo exhibition“Arata Isozaki: Third Place” Oita Art Museum (2019), “Metabolism: The City of the Future” Mori Art Museum (Tokyo 2015), “Japan Architects 1945- 2010” 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa (2014), “Aerodream. Architecture, design and inflatable structures 1950-2020” Centre Pompidou-Metz (2021).
