biscuit gallery (Shibuya, Tokyo), a commercial contemporary art gallery on Shoto Bunkamura Street in Shibuya, is pleased to announce the group exhibition, “International Dialogue.”
With the cooperation of curator Jens Petersen, we will introduce a “dialogue” between Japanese and foreign artists through exhibitions.
The exhibition will be on view from Saturday, May 18 to Sunday, June 9, 2024.
This exhibition will be held simultaneously at biscuit gallery karuizawa.
A reception will be held on the May 18 (Sat) from 16:00 to 19:00.
We live in times when humanity rejects science and humanism. People in power fail at taking appropriate measures against man made climate change, and lack understanding that oppression and violence only breeds more violence. Polarization between groups of different values widens, and intellectually based arguments are ignored.
In such a state, it’s imperative to nurture settings where persons of different backgrounds can communicate and get acquainted. The art world should welcome all voices, explore new ideas, and challenge the status quo.
International Dialogue pairs four Japanese artists with four foreign artists. Each pair works in a similar realm, sharing the form of expression, media, style, motif or motivation. The goal is to create a dialogue between their artworks. How do artists of different cultural backgrounds approach comparable questions? What can we see and learn when diversities meet? biscuit gallery’s three floors in Shibuya, plus the space in Karuizawa, provide four distinct venues for dialogue between the pairs’ creations.
We invite you to experience a conversation between Korean and Japanese threads on the ground floor in Shibuya, expressive figurative paintings from Tokyo welcoming their Mexican peers on the second floor, and on the top floor a philosophical discussion by abstract paintings hailing from Sweden and the southern island of Kyushu. In the Karuizawa gallery, memories are shared between landscape paintings of Yamagata and Taiwan.
Watch how brushstrokes and colours resonate with each other. Listen for light whispers from obscure figures. Feel the warmth shared by connecting textiles. And imagine a world where all humans urge for that same level of mutual understanding.
Jens Petersen
Curator Profile
Jens Petersen
Jens Petersen is a Swedish art lover and collector living in Tokyo for the past 15 years. During the pandemic he wanted to do something more with his art interest and started studying curation, including a course at Node Center in Berlin. International Dialogue is his first exhibition.
“Through my curation I want to increase opportunities for foreign artists to show their art in Japan, and help Japanese artists to exhibit abroad. International Dialogue is a natural first exhibition as it pairs four foreign artists who have never before exhibited in Japan, with four domestic artists who have had limited, if any, exposure to the overseas art world.”
“The pairs are categorized into textile, figurative, abstract and landscape art, and shown in one distinct space each. It may seem like four separate exhibitions, but I hope visitors can see a red thread. First through the exhibition title, with the dialogues going on between the artworks. Secondly, I’m attracted to art that questions what is visible to the human eye. It can be a layered painting which changes character due to the available light, an artwork which makes you travel outside of the canvas (literally in the physical space or mentally in your mind), or a work that doesn’t immediately show what it is or what it wants to tell you. I think all eight artists possess this quality.”
Jens Petersen
Participating Artists
biscuit gallery (Shibuya):
Seongeun Lee
Rentaro Kawamoto
Elizabeth Ibarra
Sawako Nasu
Hanna Zelleke Collin
Emumoto
biscuit gallery karuizawa (Karuizawa):
Information
Group Exhibition “International Dialogue”
【biscuit gallery (Shibuya)】
Location: biscuit gallery 1-3F
Dates: Saturday, May 18 – Sunday, June 9, 2024
Time: 13:00 – 19:00 *Closed Monday – Wednesday
Free Admission
Sponsored by biscuit gallery
【biscuit gallery karuizawa (Karuizawa)】
Dates: Saturday, May 18 – Sunday, June 23, 2024
Time: 12:00 – 18:00 *Closed Tuesday and Wednesday
Free Admission
Sponsored by biscuit gallery karuizawa
Curator: Jens Petersen