New expression will open up a new world for the viewer. Yozo Hamaguchi started groping for creation of copper-plate engraving in 1950’s and contrived his original technique. It is a time-consuming procedure to engrave a copper plate delicately over many months, however, it created an unprecedented mysterious scene which is full of light and darkness, and he became successful internationally as a leading copper-plate engraver in the latter half of the 20th century. This summer, in association with Yozo Hamaguchi, works by three artists who are opening up unprecedented expression at present, will be exhibited.

Tsunao Okumura continues “embroidery as performance” over 20 years. He dares to work as a night guard and intently moves a needle at his waiting time during work, and devotes over 1000 work hours onto a small piece of cloth. Is this a crystal of enormous time or an avant-garde play? “Guardsman’s Stitching Works”, an inscrutable work that amounts to 7200 hours, is introduced.

Nerhol is an artist duo composed of Yoshihisa Tanaka and Ryuta Iida. With sophisticated method using layers, Nerhol represents a form that includes tremor of time and existence. Their masterpiece is a work which is created by stacking 200 portraits which were consecutively photographed over a three minutes’ period then sculpted, which cuts into the surface and the inside of a person. At this exhibition, a quiet space for speculation is developed, with a new piece from this series as well as the recent work, “roadside tree”.

Nanae Mitobe is a young artist of high caliber getting attention recently, and she draws faces as her theme. Sometimes she uses over 100 tubes of oil paint a day and repeatedly paints in dynamic way without hesitation of paint falling apart, and finishes an anonymous face. She draws her work as a picture, but the work looks solid and bulging, pressing with bold color and texture.

Please appreciate the works which sublimated from one’s hand into another dimension passing through space and time. The exhibition will be composed of some 20 works of copper-plate engraving of Yozo Hamaguchi and the works of contemporary artists including new works.

* Review articles in the catalog is planned to be written by Dr. Shinichi Fukuoka as an advisor to the exhibition, who is a biologist and has a profound knowledge of arts.