Kawamata Tadashi, Paris Project Rooftop Plan A-7, 1987
Plywood, balsa wood, acrylic paint, pencil, 54 x 65 x 4 cm
Kawamata Tadashi
Kawamata Tadashi: Works from Late ’80s to Early ’90s
Saturday, June 29 – Saturday, August 10, 2024
Reception: Friday, July 5, 16:00-19:00
Tuesday-Saturday 12:00-19:00
Press Release
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MISA SHIN GALLERY is pleased to present Kawamata Tadashi: Works from Late ’80s to Early ’90s, a solo exhibition opening on June 29, 2024 and running until August 10.
In an attempt to transcend the conventional frameworks of artistic expression, Kawamata creates site-specific installations using wood and other materials in cities and public spaces around the world.
While still a student at the Tokyo University of the Arts, he began using wooden frames to transform the exhibition space itself into a work of art, and in 1982, at the young age of twenty-eight, he participated in the Venice Biennale. In Apartment Project, which he began in the same year as the Venice Biennale, Kawamata’s practice took on a unique form, creating and exhibiting works that used living spaces such as apartments and homes, rather than art spaces such as museums and galleries. Residing in a location and using local materials and people, he created these works in situ, and then dismantled them, keeping a record of the entire process. He views the entire creative process for these installations as a work of art, Work in Progress, which has been ongoing for more than forty years.
Kawamata Tadashi, Prototype No.8, 1991
Plywood, aluminum, cardboard, 39 x 40 x 33 cm
While many people collaborate in Kawamata’s projects, Kawamata himself creates the models, reliefs, drawings, and other elements intrinsic to the process leading up to the execution of the project. This exhibition will mainly feature works created in the 1980s and 1990s, including a relief produced in 1987 for a project in Paris, a relief from a project conducted in Kyoto in 1988 at the Togo Murano-designed Hien-so, and a prototype model made in 1991 as part of a study on favelas (Brazilian slums and the housing in them), which he had begun working on at around that time.
The artist will be present at an exhibition reception on Friday, July 5th.