EXHIBITIONS

Bosco Sodi “Iro Miede”

Dates*: Apr 13 – May 26, 2012
Location: Taka Ishii Gallery Kyoto gallery 1
(concurrent exhibition: Kyoko Murase “Waiting 100 Million Light Years Away”, gallery 2)
Opening reception: Friday, Apr 13, 18:00 – 20:00
*The gallery will open on Sunday, Apr 29 (11:00-19:00) in conjunction with Art Kyoto. 
Also the gallery will be closed from May 3 through May 8 for the Golden Week holidays.

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Taka Ishii Gallery Kyoto is pleased to present “Iro Miede”, an exhibition of new works by Bosco Sodi, an internationally-exhibiting artist based in New York, Barcelona, Berlin, and Mexico. Born in Mexico in 1970, Sodi has had solo exhibitions at the Bronx Museum of the Arts (New York, 2010) and The Pace Gallery (New York, 2011). “Iro Miede” features six paintings made using organic materials in Sodi’s signature style. The artist has provided the following text and waka poem by Onono Komachi, translated by Arthur Waley, for the exhibition.

【Iro Miede】

Iro miede A thing which fades
Utsurou mono wa With no outward sign–
Yo no naka no Is the flower
Is the flower Of the heart of man
Hana ni zo arikeru In this world !
Ono No Komachi Translated by Arthur Waley

In this show, I want to approach the cherry blossom as a symbol of life’s physical transience and to show how the sakura reminds us of our humanity and mortality.
In this series of white/pink paintings, I use a light-sensitive pink pigment which will become white through the years; allowing for the paintings’ final transformation to be completely white. In this way, I highlight the blossom’s symbol for life. In the end, I want to emphasize a profound truth: that life is too short to squander.

Bosco Sodi

Sodi has a strong interest in non-artificial organic materials and mixes sawdust, wood pulp, and natural fibers with unadulterated pigments, glue, and water and works with them using his bare hands on horizontally positioned canvases. He views the production process as an exchange with the materials; his paintings are produced through a combination of several days of physical work and organic and unpredictable changes in the material itself. The artist mixes pigments into the material instead of applying them to the surface of his works to give form to the vibrant energy that resides within organic matter and nature. As the material dries out, they crack and create changes in color and texture. The resulting works exude a singular atmosphere and overwhelming presence.

The exhibition, co-organized with Yoshii Gallery (New York), will be on view from April 13 to May 26.
The artist, who lives in New York, will be present at the opening reception on April 13.