Koji Tanada Exhibition（TOKYO）

Mizuma Art Gallery is delighted to present Koji Tanada’s solo exhibitions in two years. Tanada is known for creating a figurative wooden statue using combination of different materials like FRP and stainless steel, and covering its face with a facemask. In recent years this style has changed to a dynamic statue carved from a single tree without using any other materials.

The exhibition will be comprised of four statues of girls named “Girl on the horizon” as its central piece, each representing four cardinal points: north, south, east and west. It is titled after Tanada’s strong feeling on how there is a common aesthetic between the beauty of nature such as sunset or sunrise and the girls’ fragility and momentary grace-a flash of radiance unleashed by girl’s innocence due to her insecurity that is typical of her age. These aspects brilliantly captured by Tanada convey to us that an individual mankind is unalterably on all with the magnificent nature.

The series of wooden statues carved from a single tree started from 2003, mostly expressed feelings of sadness and anxiety, projecting human figures striving to tackle the hardship of contemporary society. However, in the works shown in this exhibition “Girls on the horizon”, the sorrow commonly expressed in his past works has disappeared, and instead it quietly stands as if it were looking after us. In addition, just like sewing a bib for a stone Jizo statue to worship, Tanada has knitted their woolen underwear knitted as a mark of respect towards the girls. When it gets unstitched through time he hopes someone will follow in his footsteps to knit them new woolen underwear to succeed the feeling of this respect.

Koji Tanada has received a great recognition in the group exhibition “DOMANI・Tomorrow” at Sonpo Japan Togo Seiji Art Museum. His exhibition will be continual, soon after this solo exhibition he will be participating in a group exhibition at Mito Art Museum in the summer. Please do not forget to see the statues from head to its stand, breathe soul by Tanada with freshly clear skin, flushed cheeks, mysterious expression of watery eyes, a soul is breathed in by Tanada.