Dates: Apr 11 – May 16, 2009
Opening reception: Saturday, Apr 11, 18:00 – 20:00

images
http://www.takaishiigallery.com/private_viewing/aprilpool/

“Around the time this exhibition is going to start, the cherry trees will be magnificently blooming. But if you were to plant too many cherry trees, I think it would actually be quite awful. In my personal opinion, it is the wriggling spring that is more interesting than these symbolic things. Because it is a solo exhibition, I embroidered what I prefer. One stroke measures between 3 mm and 235 mm. While keeping the strokes close to each other, separating or overlapping them, it is OK when my work is wriggling. ”
Zon Ito

Taka Ishii Gallery is pleased to announce our first solo exhibition with Zon Ito. Ito, born 1971 in Osaka, graduated from Kyoto City University of Arts and is based in the Kansai region. This exhibition consists of Ito’s latest works which are created in the medium of embroidery on fabric.

One of the recently important exhibitions in which Ito participated was “When Lives Become Form: Dialogue with The Future Brazil / Japan” at the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo (2008), co-organized by The Japan Foundation. Curator Yuko Hasegawa wrote following lines about the characteristics of Ito’s works:

“As a result the work has the strength to undermine viewers’ preconceived ideas and set their imagination free. A single subject is depicted through a string of images. But how many of the images should the viewer draw on from the work to make sense of his or her world? Viewers find themselves freeing their own consciousness to the point of defenselessness, picking up images at random. It is in this diffusive quality – present in Ito’s works in its manifold media from animation to installation – that the richness of his art lies.”

After having a solo exhibition at WATARI-UM (The Watari Museum of Contemporary Art), Tokyo (2003) titled “The End of the Neighborhood”, Ito participated as one of the emerging artists born in the 1970s in “Roppongi Crossing”, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2004) and “Three individuals: Zon Ito x Hajime Imamura x Yoshihiro Suda”, The National Museum of Art, Osaka (2006). His works were also featured in numerous international large-scale exhibitions including the “International Triennale of Contemporary Art Yokohama 2001”, “The 11th Triennale India”, New Delhi (2005) and “How Latitudes Become Forms”, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2003). Upcoming exhibition include a group show at the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum (July 18, 2009 – ) and a two-person exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (July 28, 2009 – ).

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