GALLERY MoMo

Open： Tue. - Sat. 11:00 - 19:00
Closed on Sun., Mon., and National Holiday​

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GALLERY MoMo Ryogoku is pleased to present a two-person exhibition titled "Cultivating Time: The Practice of Two Artists" featuring works by Keiko Miyamori and Hiroko Masuko, from Saturday, September 14 to Saturday, October 19.

 

At first glance, their works may seem different, but the collection of artworks created through their daily practices shares common themes such as tranportation, nature, memory, and time. This exhibition explores how both artists approach and express these themes.

 

Hiroko Masuko has been working on her "Bonsai" series since her early career, cultivating her ideal forms with pen, focusing on the collaboration between nature and humans. She later moved through various regions of Tohoku, drawing inspiration from the cultures nurtured by those lands. One of the works to be exhibited, "Kawa no Utsuwa," originated from her desire to create something that could "turn inward," a shift she began in 2013 while working on the "Bonsai" series, which contemplates the intricate relationship between humans and nature. The series now forms the core of Masuko's creative practice, with each piece, be it a drawing or a three-dimensional work, created daily, inspired by her encounters during her journeys. The accumulation of these small, sensory works transforms with each exhibition, striving toward a fertile landscape.

 

Keiko Miyamori, who works between Japan and the United States, explores the connection between the individual and the collective through various mediums, including painting, sculpture, and installation. She employs a technique called "Jutaku," where she places Japanese paper on the surface of trees and rubs it with handmade charcoal to capture the patterns of the bark, thereby documenting the place and time. Having spent the COVID-19 pandemic in New York, Miyamori's daily "Jutaku series," which centers on the theme of recovery, continues today under the title "TIME." The collected Jutaku works now number over 1,000, and this exhibition will feature works from Day 1 to Day 1,000. Encased in transparent glass boxes, Miyamori's daily Jutaku works transform from mere daily accumulations to the preservation of significant memories.

 

Although the places and environments where the two artists have lived and created differ, both have sincerely engaged with their daily senses, cultivating and accumulating their experiences. We hope that through their works, which reflect these individual practices, viewers can discover something universal from the personal sensations of these artists.

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Hiroko Masuko was born in Miyagi Prefecture in 1982. She completed her graduate studies in Education at Miyagi University of Education in 2008. In 2007, she received the TWW Award at Tokyo Wonder Wall and held a solo exhibition at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. Since then, she has held solo exhibitions in Tokyo and Iwate. In 2009, she held another solo exhibition at Tokyo Wonder Site Hongo, and the following year, she won the Excellence Award at the Toyota Art Competition (Toyota Municipal Museum of Art) and was selected for the Gunma Youth Biennale (Gunma Museum of Modern Art). In 2018, she participated in "VOCA: The Vision of Contemporary Art " at Ueno Royal Museum, in 2020 in "Tracing the Space Between" at Akita Museum of Art and Yamagata Biennale, in 2022 in "Contours of Continuity" at Sezon Museum of Modern Art, and "Organizing the Everyday" at Hajimari Art Center. In 2023, she participated in "7 Artists Capturing IMA" at Iwate Museum of Art, and in April this year, she participated in the two-person exhibition "COLLECTION+VOL.1: Shared Gazes" at Ishigami-no-Oka Museum (Iwate).

 

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Keiko Miyamori was born in Kanagawa Prefecture in 1964. She completed her graduate studies in Japanese painting at the University of Tsukuba. In 1998, through Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs launched the Program of Overseas Study, she studied at the University of Pennsylvania, USA. She moved to Philadelphia in 2000 and then to New York in 2011. Miyamori has received numerous awards, including the TAMON Award for Best Work by Shin Tani at the 6th Kashiwa Cultural Forum 104 Awards (1995), the Grand Prize at the 16th Imadate Contemporary Art Paper Exhibition (1997), the Leeway Foundation Transformation Award (2008), and The Independence Foundation Fellowships in the Arts (2010). She has participated in group exhibitions such as "VOCA '97: The Vision of Contemporary Art" (Ueno Royal Museum) and "Expanding Art '97" (Tsukuba Art Museum). Recent solo exhibitions in Japan include "Surfaces of Time" at Gallery Toki no Wasuremono in 2020, "The Sea of Memory, Rose's Pride" at Nakamuraya Salon Museum in 2023, and "Keiko Miyamori" at Gallery Kouketsu. Her exhibition "I Lived 1,000 Years: In the World of Umwelt" was held at mhPROJECT Nikogiri Two until January this year.

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