JART6TH / WAH Center / 2F GalleryA

2F GalleryA

Eri Ito 伊藤恵理, Akiha Yamakami 山上晃葉, Saya Kobayashi 小林紗也, Yuko K., Yumi Hasegawa 長谷川祐実, Wako Tomitani 冨谷和瑚, Jun Ando 安藤準, Hewon Choi ちぇ へをん, Yoko Haraoka 原岡容子, Mafune Gonjo 言上真舟, Yuki Ideguchi 出口雄樹 , Natsuko Hattori 服部夏子, Yoshiaki Otsuka 大塚世士明, Kenichi Nakajima+Yuko Uchida 内田裕子+中島健一

Eri Ito 伊藤恵理 (Tokyo) installation
Stones, plastic attachments and broken pieces of ceramics,　these ‘nothings’ catches my heart since childhood.
I want to give these ‘nothings’ a new reason to be owned for a little longer.
Comb is a motif for many of my works.
Tools that exist close to our everyday habit has a distinctive attraction,
reason because we give many meanings to the item with stories.
As objets or jewelry, I aim for my work to hold a quiet existence.
1991　Born in Tokyo
Brought up in Tokyo and UK, Leeds
2015　Graduated Musashino Art University Metal Craft Course
石やプラスチックの留め具、陶器の破片などわざわざ目を止めることもないけど少し気になる
〈なんでもないなにか〉にもう少し長生きするための理由を与えたい。
長い間使う中で、それぞれに意味やストーリーを与えられ、独特の魅力を持つ”櫛”をモチーフに静かな存在感を持つ作品づくりを目指します
1991　東京生まれ
東京とイギリスはリーズ市にて育つ
2015　武蔵野美術大学 金工 卒業

Akiha Yamakami 山上晃葉 (NY) soft sculpture
Akiha Yamakami was born in Nagano Prefecture, Japan in 1984. She　studied at 2009 MA in Printmaking, Lithography major at the graduate　school of Tama Art University,Tokyo. She lives and works in New York City　from 2012. She creates soft sculpture works with print and cloths upon the　theme of human body. She actively presents her work both in Japan and in　overseas. Started to collaborate with dance projects a few years ago. She
makes costumes for dancers as well.
１９８４年長野県生まれ。２００９年多摩美術大学大学院美術研究科版画リトグラフ専攻修了。日本国内外の様々な場所にて展示、コンペに参加する中で2012 年に渡米。以後NY にて活動を続けている。現在は布とプリントを用いて“身体”をモチーフにソフトスカルプチャーを制作。数年前からコンテンポラリーダンサーとのコラボレーションをはじめ衣装制作、舞台美術などにも携わる。

Saya Kobayashi 小林紗也 (Tokyo) Sculpture, Painting
When you have an illusion that it looks like ○○, you are drawn to that object.
I hope to get a mixed reaction about atmosphere of this work by each audience every time.
I want you to feel as if you picked up your favorite pebble vaguely on a riverbank.
Born in Kanagawa, Japan, in 1990.9.26.
Graduated from Tama Art University Art and Media course.
“◯◯に見える”、そんな錯覚をした時ヒトはその物体に惹きつけられる。
観客によってこの作品が毎回違う“何か”に見えたらいい。
河原で気に入った石をなんとなく手に取るような感覚を体感してほしい。
1990年9月26日生まれ神奈川県出身

Yuko K. (NY)　video , photograph
I believe the existence of any artist’s sense of view must be reflected by the memories of their experiences.
To me, the method of taking videos and photographs symbolize the importance of time.
Suspending the equal value for both passing time and present time, gives me a diverse creator’s awareness and ability to recall memories of past experiences I had almost lost in the transforming, changing figure.
全ての作家（アーテイスト）の目線というのは、常にその経験の記憶に基づいて存在するものではないかと私は考える。
時間を再現できるヴィデオ及びフォトという手法は、私にとっては常に時間の重みを象徴している。通り過ぎる瞬間、そして、積み重ねて来た時間、そのどちらもが同等に持つ時間の重みを切り取る作業は、表現者としての様々な気付きを与えてくれ、そして、失われた経験の記憶を、再び形を変えて思い起こさせてくれる。
美術系大学卒業後、イラストレーターや美術講師などの経歴を経て渡米。現在では絵画、イラスト、版画、写真、ヴィデオ など、多岐に渡って制作の幅を持ち活動。

Yumi Hasegawa 長谷川祐実 (Tokyo) Painting, object
When I was a kid, my friends, has trampled the grasshoppers. I thought that it would be such memories to prove the existence of the house. I drew them. You would be think it is a blurry. It is for my life. However, this act, proved the existence of the house. I have decided the image, and placed the color, and traced the line. By this hand. So, the evidence was enough. I lived in certainly its location. The house, had been hiding in the memory. I was watching the landscape. In my house.
Takashima city,Shiga,Japan
Joshibi University of Art and Design,Visual Design course graduation.
2015 Joshibi Museum Awards
例えば幼い頃にショウユバッタを踏んだという記憶は、家の存在を証明する材料になると思った。精神的に遠い風景を描く手は拙く、ひとつところに留まらない生活は土地への記憶の輪郭をおぼろげにしていた。しかしこの行為は揺るぎない家の存在を証明した。この手で線を引き、色を置いて、像を定めたのだから十分だった。私は確かにその場所に住んでいて、恐らく雑多な記憶にうまく隠れた家の中から、あの風景を見ていたのだと思う。
日本,滋賀県高島市在住
2015 女子美術大学芸術学部デザイン・工芸学科ヴィジュアルデザイン専攻卒業,女子美術大学美術館賞授賞

Wako Tomitani 冨谷和瑚 (Tokyo) Painting, installation
I am the artist who is active in Tokyo from 2011.I produce the work using the QR-cord from 2014. From the japanese point of view, I express the "live" of modern people to coexist with informations. Internet has globalized because all of the information come and go freely all over the world .On the other hand , most of the Japanese people only read what was written in Japanese ."Language" is the most cultural product and it is the biggest barrier in the information society .Currently , the problems of globalization has been pointed out and Japan has been promoting the globalization against the global trend. It is the key to contemplate the value of native language and to keep self identity in the globalization.
Born 1992 in Tokyo.
2011-2015 Tama art university ,Tokyo.
2015 Five art college exhibition, The national art center tokyo
2011年から東京で活動しているアーティスト。2014年からQRコードを用いた作品を制作。情報と共にある現代人の「生」を、日本の視点から表現しています。インターネットはグローバル化と同じく、全ての情報が世界を自由に行き来しています。一方で、殆どの日本人は日本語で書かれた情報しか読まない。最も文化的とも言える「言葉」が、情報における最大障壁になっているとも言えます。昨今グローバル化の問題点が指摘される中、日本は世界の流れに逆行しグローバル化を推し進めている只中にあります。今一度母国語の価値を見直すことが、グローバル化・情報化する世界で自我を保つ鍵であると感じています。

Jun Ando 安藤準 (NY) multi-art
Art is to relieve the pain of life.
Life is a process of death.  Humans are going to die and fear to die.  All of the distress comes from the fear of death.  When people worry about their life, their existence, they also wonder why humans live.  People start to believe there isn’t any reason to live. Therefore, people made heaven and yearn for heaven.  Humans wanted a place which made them believe that they were absolute.  Death is a part of life, as the same for birth.  When people know what death is, people will know what life is.
The final concept of my art work is to help relieve the pain of life from the root and entertain people to supply human’s imperative want same as the fundamental function of art. People want fundamentally the image of nature, heaven, hypothetical idol, and dogmas. Ando's art work is to show the answer of his thought about the philosophical issue of life by his own interpretation in multilateral way.
芸術は、人生の苦しみを和らげる為のものである。
人生とは死への過程であり、死ぬ事を恐れる。全ての辛苦は死を恐れる事は派生する。人々が彼らの人生や自己の存在に迷うとき、同時に人はなぜ生きるのかという問題に出会う。人は、この世に生きる意味等という物がないと気付き始めている。それ故に、人は死後の世界を作りこがれるのだ。それは、人は皆自己の存在が揺るぎない物であると信じたいからである。死は誕生と同様に人生の一部分である。人が死を知るとき、人は同時に生を知る事となろう。
私の作品の根底にあるコンセプトは、アートの基本的な機能で人の本質的な要求である人生の苦しみを根本から解決し、一時の興を提供する事である。人は基本的に、自然のイメージ、天の世界、仮定された偶像、そして教義を求めている。私は作品を通して、多様な表現方法で人生における哲学的な命題の解を言及したい。

Hewon Choi ちぇ へをん (Tokyo) installation
Animals might go extinct. Human race might end. Only plants would live.
There have been various hypotheses and situations which suggest that deep within plants live the ultimate survivors.
So, what forms of cages can put a stop to plants' strong will to live?
This piece of creative work aims to illustrate the "survival power of plants" through 10 types of cages.
1991 Born in Seoul
2014 Graduated Tama Art University, majoring in Graphic Design
2014 Joined an advertising agency as a designer
動物が消えても、人類が終わっても、植物だけは生き残る。
様々な仮説やシーンがたくさん存在するほど、植物は他のどの生物より生命力を秘めている。
そんな彼らを止めておくには、一体どんな形のゲージが必要なのだろう。
本作品は、「植物の生命力」を表現するために製作した１０種類のケージである。
1991 韓国ソウル生まれ
2014 多摩美術大学 グラフィックデザイン学科 卒業

Yoko Haraoka 原岡容子 (NY) photograph
-mugshots
Photographs in the "mugshots" series are self-portrait comic depictions of staged characters that were inspired from from my own observation of people on the street, celebrities in the media, also real life police photos. 　This project is rather to explore gestures and face expression in extreme circumstances as being arrested than to make fun of criminals.　As facial expressions, hand gestures and extreme emotions have always fascinated me, I focused on people's attitudes that come from anger, guilt, shame, vulnerability, and humiliation that are created in daily incidents.　When creating characters to transform into, while living in such a multicultural place as New York City, has given me an opportunity to observe and try to mimic a multitude of emotions.　In this self-portrait series I am transforming into stereotypical characters that I created, whose mugshots are portraying various reactions to being arrested.　This is an ongoing project since 2011.
Yoko Haraoka was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. She moved to the U.S. in 2005 and attended New England School of Photography in Boston to pursue a career in photography.
After experiencing a variety of photography fields, she has been mostly concentrating on self-portrait projects with an emphasis on humor. Exploring this direction has led to numerous exciting and dynamic series that showcase her playful and artistic outlook on life.
She has won an award at the Asian Creative Awards in 2015 and her works have been shown in such places as New York, Philadelphia, Vermont, and Budapest. She currently lives in New York City.

Mafune Gonjo 言上真舟 (Stockholm)　glass works
Nothing in this world can last forever, everything is changeable and fleeting. The sense of pain lurks in every lovely thing. It is not easy to understand even ourselves and we struggle in ambiguity.
While walking from nowhere to nowhere, it always gives me energy and relief to meet with something new and nostalgic at the same time. It can be a landscape, ruins and old weathered buildings or a work of art. Through my art, I aim to create a space in which viewers experience this feeling-encountering something in between memory, afterimage, the unknown and the future.
Mafune Gonjo was born 1984 in Japan. She moved to Sweden 2008 and took a Master Degree at Konstfack (College of Arts, Crafts and Design) in Stockholm. After one year of project program at the Royal University of Fine Art 2010-2011, she started working as a freelance artist.
Mafune is based in Stockholm, exhibits and works in different cities all over the world; Stockholm, Paris, London and main cities in Japan and USA. She has a collection in the National Museum of Stockholm and the Museum of American Glass in New Jersey, USA.
web http://mafunegonjo.com/

Yuki Ideguchi 出口雄樹 (NY) painting
Yuki Ideguchi’s works are based on the natural features, ideas, history and culture of Japan, with influence from Asian cultures, and the United States. The aim of his work is to foster greater understanding not only of Japanese culture, but also of cultural connections among Asia as a whole, and the United States. Ideguchi moved to New York shortly after finishing his MA in Japanese painting at Tokyo University of the Arts in 2013. After moving to New York, Ideguchi changed his media from mineral, dye ink, black ink and paper to acrylic and canvas. The colors on his canvas became more vivid and his adoption of a pop-style artwork has given his work a more universal expression. Ideguchi’s ambition is in those new waves, his struggle to go higher and higher to see all the vistas that New York City has to offer.
Exhibition
2010, Exhibition of Teruhisa Kitahara’s Collection(Mori Arts Center Gallery/ Tokyo /Japan),2011, Nakanojo Biennale (Nakanojo area/ Gunma / Japan),2015, Solo exhibition-Somewhere hasn’t been here will be here (Minnano Gallery/ Tokyo/ Japan), WAVE - LIFE AND DEATH: YUKI IDEGUCHI,curated by Kyoko Sato(Chinese American Arts Council/ NY/ USA) etc.
http://ideguchiyuki.com/

Natsuko Hattori 服部夏子 (NY) 　soft sculpture
Mocomoco (もこもこ) is a Japanese word that refers to a soft or puffy surface and the　comforting feelings that one might get from holding a toy stuffed animal, or being wrapped up in a down coat.　Fabric is my medium of choice because people everywhere can relate more easily to this material, which conveys warmth, natural softness and the intimate human touch. The act of wrapping is central to my sculptures.
My sculptures are created from balls that are individually wrapped with fabric and bounded together to make up an entire whole. Each ball represents the inner state of mankind. The gesture of wrapping each round ball, is an act of transformation that converts pain, sadness and despair into positive energy, such as love or a prayer for comfort.　My work conveys a sense of happiness and celebrates the human spirit.
Natusko Hattori was born and raised in Japan. She a visual artist and sculptor based in New York.
Her works had been exhibited Lobby Gallery at The Wall Street Journal Building, Consulate General of Japan, Caelum Gallery, First Street Gallery, The ISE Cultural Foundation Gallery, Berkeley College, Space Womb, Grace Institute, the Studio 57 Gallery, JaNet Art Space, Be fluent, and also Nave Gallery in Massachusetts.
In Japan, She exhibited at the Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art Gallery and the art gallery T+. Now her studio is in Long Island City, NY.

Yoshiaki Otsuka 大塚世士明 (NY) 　painting
Yoshiaki’s works focus on exploring the narrowing gap and the tension that exists between artificial, virtual spaces, such as those found in online video games, and the physical realm in which we live. He is inspired by landscapes of virtual worlds he has encountered in games. He believes that experiences in virtual spaces surpass the boundary between fantasy and reality in the human mind, allowing them to feel very real. These experiences resemble the sensation of being immersed in an artist’s world, unbounded by canvas borders. Yoshiaki’s works show human thoughts that are aggregations of both subconscious and conscious mental processes, dreams, and desires that appear in both virtual realms and the physical world.
Yoshiaki Otsuka was born in Japan in 1984 and currently lives in New York. He received his BFA and MFA from The Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in 2007 and 2009, respectively. In the fall of 2009, Yoshiaki moved to New York City, where he worked as an artist assistant for two years. In 2014, he graduated the MFA program at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and moved back to New York.

Kenichi Nakajima+Yuko Uchida 内田裕子+中島健一(NY) collaboration painting
Kenichi Nakajima / To create a work in the most natural way I need two conditions. First I have to set myself free from the conventions of what many think art should be. The second condition is that I have to feel raw sensations and emotions.When the expression conveys successfully the impression, that is art.
Kenichi Nakajima moved to New York City in 2007.He exhibited his works at : 2014, solo Exhibition 'From Feet To Art' and more in New York. And he had performance art at Ideal Glass in 2015. He still expand his activities as a professional artist.

Yuko Uchida / The core of my work is inspired by emotions and memories born out of the trauma I experienced in childhood. It was confusing to be surrounded by so many diverse and sometimes conflicting emotions such as suspicion, loneliness, shame, anger, and joy. I was keenly aware that I had to suppress myself. All these experiences have shaped my identity as the woman that I am today.
In my work, I give voice to these complex and unspoken feelings, bearing witness to the particularities of my experience and giving free expression to my personal truth. The themes that repeat themselves in my work have to do with fragmentation, brokenness, entrapment, and self-realization.

Yuko Uchida is working and lives in Brooklyn, NY. In 2009, Uchida was awarded the prestigious David McFadden award from the ISE Cultural Foundation. She has had numerous exhibitions in New York City including Ideal Glass, 440 Gallery and National Academy Museum.