Art Central Hong Kong 2024
biscuit gallery will be participating in Art Central Hong Kong from March 27, 2024.
biscuit gallery will be exhibiting a duo show by Fukumi Nakazawa and Miyu Yamada in the “Neo” section under the supervision of curator Enoch Cheng (booth A9).
*Neo at Art Central
Our display is a duo exhibition, featuring two emerging Japanese artists Miyu Yamada and Fukumi Nakazawa, who belong to the social and cultural definition of Gen Z. Amidst the backdrop of the current digital age’s complexity and the search for identity in an environment of information overload, the exhibition will focus on the common theme of “the power of ambiguity.”
Fukumi Nakazawa’s practice is founded upon the abstract theme of “the boundary between human beings and the rest of the world.” She embodies the people and beings that inhabit these boundaries in her drawings, which she further develops into four-dimensional-like sculptural works. These sculptures are created through a process of transforming the drawings for her animations into one mass, formed by layering each individual drawing on top of one another. When displayed, they accompany a screened version of the video animation.
Fukumi Nakazawa “Parallel Waves”, 2024, 1167×910x30mm, Ink on chalk ground
The motifs found in Nakazawa’s work are free-form, defying clear categories and definitions beyond the framework of traditional art, and their movements are light yet deeply meaningful and interpretative.
On the other hand, Miyu Yamada is known for her unique use of sand as one of the main mediums in her paintings. This decision was purposefully made to reflect her own philosophy of art, involving a deep interest in and potential for the constantly changing and adapting nature of sand in everyday life. Yamada is fascinated by the versatility and variability of this material, because while sand is most readily thought of as existing in nature, it is simultaneously, artificially used in cities as a key element for buildings and roads within complex materials like concrete and asphalt.
Miyu Yamada “Something new” 2023, 910×1167×50mm, Acrylic,mixed media on canvas
Though both artists work through different mediums and techniques, the two are united by the common thematic focus of “ambiguity.” This sense of ambiguity may be seen as reflecting the complexity and diversity of information in the digital age in which they live. Miyu Yamada approaches ambiguity through her medium of choice. Yamada’s drawings, which emerge from the sand on the canvas, blur boundaries of canvas space and line into a continuous medium. Possessing no hard borders, the drawings are ephemeral, and have the freedom of a seaside sand painting that changes its shape as it moves with the waves and wind.
Meanwhile Fukumi Nakazawa continues to create works with an awareness of how far she can abstract motifs that would otherwise become concrete by being painted, and she encourages viewers to interpret her work in various ways. From Nakazawa’s work, “abstraction” is taken to mean “existence that is not symbolized or specified,” and here, too, we can see her attitude of seeking ambiguity, which is expressed through the transformation of motifs.
According to McKinsey’s research, Generation Z is positioned as “True Gen” and tends to pursue truth and reject easy labeling and categorization. While this “ambiguity” might generally be interpreted as weakness, Yamada and Nakazawa consciously choose this ambiguity and use it to present a broader worldview.
“The power of ambiguity” may be a way of life unique to Generation Z, formed and transmitted by Nakazawa and Yamada, two artists with their own unique styles of expression. In the exhibition area of this project, the two artists will consciously construct an approach to “drawing” in their works on the exhibition floor, and make it function as an act of creating boundaries or materializing things. The exhibition will be composed of a variety of works, including drawings, paintings, sculptures, and videos, and will be presented as a project that expresses a clear message through the works, despite the exhibition’s theme of ambiguity.
Information
Art Central Hong Kong 2024
Location: Central Harbourfront
Booth: A9 （biscuit gallery）
Dates: March 27 (Wed) – March 31 (Sun), 2024
※VIP Preview – March 27
Participating Artists: Fukumi Nakazawa, Miyu Yamada