nca | nichido contemporary art

Katsunori Kobayashi
Venue : nca | nichido contemporary art
Date : 27th February - 19th March. 2009
Gallery hours : Tue - Sat 11:00 - 19:00 (Closed on Sun, Mon and National holidays)
Artist reception : 27th February 18:00 - 20:00

We are delighted to announce Katsunori Kobayashi’s first solo show at nca.
We will exhibit eighteen works including both color and monochrome photographs, as well as sculptures related to the subjects of the photos.

The Poetry of Katsunori Kobayashi
Can poetry take a tangible form, or even be wrapped in colors?
This is the question that Katsunori Kobayashi attempts to answer.
Minutely detailed bronze miniatures of a swing and a jungle gym. Something with a plaster-like texture blankets these surfaces ― white expanses, like snowy fields on a table. Are these images from a forgotten past left to gather dust, or a dream of the future? The flat ground that resembles a town square, once loaded with plates, spoons and jugs, seems to return to its original state: just a table. Kobayashi’s camera focus makes these objects appear clearly, whereas their surroundings become only dimly visible in the patchy haze, transforming themselves into a more poetic reality. Pop colors like blue, green and red occasionally emerge to add a touch of color to the scene, producing a vital rhythm in the imagery.
Kobayashi’s work hovers between reality and unreality, existence and imagination, memory and time, collapse and reconstruction ― it is precisely the conflict and tension between these contradictory terms that imbues it with poetry. This unique space created by Kobayashi crystallizes out of the medium of photography, full of a faint, quivering and beautiful poetry.
(Fumio Nanjo, Director of The Mori Art Museum)

Short biography of the artist
1961 Born in Hyogo. 1987 Bachelor of Fine Arts, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts. 1989 Master of Fine Arts, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts. 1989-1994 Brera Academy of Fine Arts, Milan, Italy. 1995 Returns to Tokyo, Japan
Solo Exhibitions: 2007 Gallery Okabe, Tokyo; Gallery Suzuki, Kyoto, Japan. 2006 Kaede Gallery, Osaka; Bieno, Nagoya, Japan. 2005 DEES HALL, Tokyo; Toyoshima Museum of Modern Art, Nagano, Japan; Gallery Suzuki, Tokyo.
2004 Gallery Okabe, Tokyo; Naruse Bijitsu-Za, Tokyo. 2003 DEES HALL, Tokyo. 2002 Yokohama Museum of Modern Art, Museum Gallery, Kanagawa, Japan. 1995 “90 Contemporary Arts of Milan; European Design, Milan, Italy. 1992 Luciano Soprani boutique, Milan, Italy.
Works acquired by the following collections: 2005 Conrad Tokyo, Bamboo Garden, Tokyo. 2004 Roynet Hotel, Nagoya; AKS Building, Tokyo; Umeda Centre Building, Osaka. 2003 Dantean Association, Italy, Piemonte, Italy etc.