Yumiko Shinozaki “SAMSARA”
session：2019.11.8 Fri. - 12.21 Sat. 13:00 - 19:00
opening Reception: 2019.11.8 Fri 18:00-20:00
＊closed on Sun, Mon, Tue and public holidays.
venue： SNOW Contemporary
SNOW Contemporary is pleased to present Yumiko Shinozaki’s solo exhibition “SAMSARA” from Friday, November 8th through Saturday, December 21st, 2019.
Yumiko Shinozaki was born in 1987 in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. She received her M.A. at Osaka University of Arts Graduate School in 2011, and has been working as a ceramic artist. Her works depicting the contemporary society with her unique forming method has been highly acclaimed as contemporary expressions beyond the genre of ceramics. Besides the solo exhibition “Red Data” at SNOW Contemporary in 2017, Shinozaki has actively participated in a number of group exhibitions at various venues such as art museums, galleries, offices, and department stores including “The Power of Decoration: A Viewpoint on Contemporary Kogei” (2009, The National Museum of Modern Art, Crafts Gallery, Tokyo), “Red Bull Music Academy Tokyo” (2014, Red Bull Japan headquarters, Tokyo) and others.
While the colorful and fancy impression of her works may remind viewers of candies or toys at a first glance, cracks and texture of the skin with bubble looking patterns covering the surface are vividly lifelike, organic, and deeply haptic. Besides, her kitsch style connotes issues and phenomenon the contemporary society is facing. Taking images from porn and animations, which would repeatedly flood and disappear on the internet, and natural objects extinguished by human activities such as living beings, viruses, and cells into her own ceramic works of semi-permanent materials of ceramics and glass, Shinozaki has established the proofs that they once “existed,” and brought about eternal “lives.”
For this occasion in which will be the third solo exhibition at SNOW Contemporary, Shinozaki places her focus on the fact that mass-produced daily necessities are persistently sold at thrift stores in the hope that they would acquire new values, even though they are originally meant to lose their merchandise values as time goes. She describes this incident as “SAMSARA,” the exhibition’s title. This exhibition will showcase nearly ten ceramic works created with daily necessities remaining as though repeating “samsara” without being consumed. This attempt, where the artist reconstructs consumer products with no merchandise value left and transforms them into artworks, will examine how it will bring about conversion of values. This exhibition will allow viewers perceive Shinozaki’s perspective on the mass consumption society, and her attitude challenging herself to be conscious of the boundary between a commodity and an artwork. Above all, we hope all viewers will fully experience the formative charms of Shinozaki’s works. We sincerely look forward to presenting the attempt toward recycling the recycled commodities (= updating values) through the never-consumed “samsara.”
session：2019.11.8 Fri. - 12.21 Sat. 13:00 - 19:00
opening Reception: 2019.11.8 Fri 18:00-20:00
＊closed on Sun, Mon, Tue and public holidays.
venue： SNOW Contemporary
SNOW Contemporary is pleased to present Yumiko Shinozaki’s solo exhibition “SAMSARA” from Friday, November 8th through Saturday, December 21st, 2019.
Yumiko Shinozaki was born in 1987 in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. She received her M.A. at Osaka University of Arts Graduate School in 2011, and has been working as a ceramic artist. Her works depicting the contemporary society with her unique forming method has been highly acclaimed as contemporary expressions beyond the genre of ceramics. Besides the solo exhibition “Red Data” at SNOW Contemporary in 2017, Shinozaki has actively participated in a number of group exhibitions at various venues such as art museums, galleries, offices, and department stores including “The Power of Decoration: A Viewpoint on Contemporary Kogei” (2009, The National Museum of Modern Art, Crafts Gallery, Tokyo), “Red Bull Music Academy Tokyo” (2014, Red Bull Japan headquarters, Tokyo) and others.
While the colorful and fancy impression of her works may remind viewers of candies or toys at a first glance, cracks and texture of the skin with bubble looking patterns covering the surface are vividly lifelike, organic, and deeply haptic. Besides, her kitsch style connotes issues and phenomenon the contemporary society is facing. Taking images from porn and animations, which would repeatedly flood and disappear on the internet, and natural objects extinguished by human activities such as living beings, viruses, and cells into her own ceramic works of semi-permanent materials of ceramics and glass, Shinozaki has established the proofs that they once “existed,” and brought about eternal “lives.”
For this occasion in which will be the third solo exhibition at SNOW Contemporary, Shinozaki places her focus on the fact that mass-produced daily necessities are persistently sold at thrift stores in the hope that they would acquire new values, even though they are originally meant to lose their merchandise values as time goes. She describes this incident as “SAMSARA,” the exhibition’s title. This exhibition will showcase nearly ten ceramic works created with daily necessities remaining as though repeating “samsara” without being consumed. This attempt, where the artist reconstructs consumer products with no merchandise value left and transforms them into artworks, will examine how it will bring about conversion of values. This exhibition will allow viewers perceive Shinozaki’s perspective on the mass consumption society, and her attitude challenging herself to be conscious of the boundary between a commodity and an artwork. Above all, we hope all viewers will fully experience the formative charms of Shinozaki’s works. We sincerely look forward to presenting the attempt toward recycling the recycled commodities (= updating values) through the never-consumed “samsara.”
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