Gallery Sekiryu is pleased to announce a summer collection show.
We do hope you find the opportunity to see and enjoy 15 artists' works as follows.

Yae Asano, Yayoi Kusama, Fumio Nambata, Toeko Tatsuno, Katsura Funakoshi

We are pleased to announce the gallery’s spring show, Plant Tales, which is an exhibition by three artists; Saya Yamagishi, Astrid Köppe, and Ryonosuke Fukui, who create their work inspired by plants. We do hope you find the opportunity to see and enjoy the “storytelling” through creation by each artist.

♦ Saya Yamagishi [1981 - ]
Living in Kanazawa City, Ishikawa prefecture, Saya Yamagishi creates imaginary plants, which are tiny and elegant, using traditional Japanese lacquer decorating techniques of Japanese lacquer like raden (mother‐of‐pearl work), makie (gold lacquer), and rankaku (eggshells). Each piece is attached to a beautiful short text like a plant specimens that describes the characteristics and origin of the name of the new species. The fictional words by the artist prompt us to imagine the invisible details of the plants or the scenery where they live. You can even wear the objects as jewelry like a brooch.
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♦ Astrid Köppe ［1974 - ］
Astrid Köppe, who lives in Berlin, has done all of her work exclusively on the same medium - A4 paper in portrait format. The mysterious objects in her drawings look like plants, animals, minerals, fungi, or some alien hybridized combination of these, and invite multiple interpretations. Her works have been widely exhibited in Europe, the US, and Asia. She is taking part in the Group Show “In a Dream, the Journey Is Within Reach”, from 29 April to 22 May 2022 at CENTPURE in Higashikawa town, Hokkaido.
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♦ Ryonosuke Fukui ［1923-1986］
Gallery Sekiryu has held exhibitions which featured “mimeographic works” by Ryonosuke Fukui five times. He has prolifically created over 300 mimeographs in the span of a decade (circa 1955-1965). Even though he used an easy and common print technique at that time, so-called mimeograph printing, his work had a profound and elegant mood. He used waxed paper as the plates and colored them with oil paints. The lines possess a unique sensitivity which are created by an extremely thin cutter.
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We are pleased to announce the seventh exhibition for Katsura Funakoshi's print works from our collection.
We do hope you experience the uniqueness and quietness that the various human figures show in his works.

Gallery Sekiryu is pleased to announce a summer collection show.
We do hope you find the opportunity to see and enjoy 20 artists' works as follows.

Astrid Köppe, Masuo Ikeda, Keiji Usami, Shunsuke Osone, Kimio Kawaguchi, Yayoi Kusama, Domoto Hisao, Domoto Yuumi, Minoru Nomata, Moon Seung-Keun, Keiko Minami

Gallery Sekiryu is pleased to present Toeko Tatsuno’s second solo exhibition in three years. Toeko Tatsuno (1950–2014) was born and raised in Okaya City, Nagano Prefecture, which has a rich natural environment overlooking Lake Suwa. She completed the Master’s Program in oil painting at the Tokyo University of the Arts in 1974. From the early 1970s, she began to exhibit Minimal paper works, using the medium of “printing.” From the 1980s, based on the confidence she gained through those creations, she began to develop works mainly on a large-scale canvas. In 1995, at the age of forty-five, she became the youngest artist ever to hold a solo exhibition at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo. Throughout her artistic career, she consistently worked on producing oil paintings, drawings and printworks, while also establishing a prominent position in the field of contemporary painting in Japan. Thus, although she passed away in 2014 at the age of sixty-four, her works have continued to be shown in exhibitions in various venues up until today. Tatsuno’s works are also in public collections in forty institutions worldwide.

The majority of the titles of Tatsuno’s works use symbolic characters, such as the production date and the term “Untitled.” The title of this exhibition TWIN COLORS is a phrase Tatsuno had adopted several times for the title of her prints and oil paintings. It is also one of the few titles of hers that carries a meaning. On the other hand, upon reading her interviews, discussions and limited writings, one can understand that she was the rare artist who could clearly articulate her own works. Her words are inspirational to the extent that they resonate in a way distinctive of artists who have continued to think through painting. Thus, they convey the depth of her paintings, while also steering the viewers to take strong interest in them. The words “twin colors” contain such meanings as: there are two; they are similar; they are a pair; there are two colors; and they have a recurring feature. This phrase allows the viewer to perceive the artist’s unique perspective and come to an understanding of an artist who was drawn to those various conditions implied in that phrase, and who also utilized them as clues to her works. This perspective of hers does not only apply to the works with the title TWIN COLORS but also to many of her other works. Thus, one can say that this unique perspective derived from the artist’s strong sense of adherence. Tatsuno gazed upon elements such as the positional relationship between objects, and their height differences, unevenness, and hollowness. From within familiar sights in her daily life, Tatsuno captured a “motive” for her work, and then thoroughly adhered to that “motive idea” as she developed it into a work of art. Her magical works that are passionately loved by many reveal a rich world with a strong sense of strength, which originated from a common “motive” easily approachable by anyone. Tatsuno’s world of art allows one to increasingly feel a sense of newness and vitality. Please come and enjoy Toeko Tatsuno’s exhibition, composed of approximately fifteen works, including oil paintings, drawings and printworks.

(Translated by Taeko Nanpei)

Ben Nicholson, Lucian Freud, Vija Celmins, Ryonosuke Fukui, Yayoi Kusama, Toeko Tasuno, Keiko Minami, Katsura Funakoshi, Ryusei Kishida, Shinro Ohtake, Yoko Yamamoto

Taro Okamoto, Yayoi Kusama, Sokichi Suga, Toeko Tatsuno, Fumio Nambata, Tatsue Hayase, Ryonosuke Fukui, Katsura Funakoshi, Keiko Minami

We are pleased to participate in the Art Taipei 2019. Biomorphism comes from combining the Greek words ‘bios,’ meaning life, and ‘morphe,’ meaning form. Our exhibition features four female artists (Yayoi Kusama, Saori Akutagawa, Yuki Katsura, Astrid Koeppe) on the theme of organic forms, which refer to, or evoke, living things such as plants or the human body. Please visit us at Booth J10.

Toshio Arimoto, Toeko Tatsuno, Katsura Funakoshi, Yasutake Funakoshi, Ryonosuke Fukui, Yayoi Kusama, Taro Okamoto, Atsushi Suwa, Shunsuke Osone, Yoshiro Negishi

Gallery Sekiryu is pleased to present an exhibition of animal sculptures using dry lacquer technique by Shunsuke Osone at the gallery in Minami Aoyama, Tokyo, from April 6 to 21 and then in Matsumoto City, Nagano Prefecture from May 11 to 26. Shunsuke Osone (born in Kanagawa Prefecture, 1978) graduated from Department of Industrial, Interior and Craft Design, Musashino Art University in 2002, and took masters course of Cultural Properties Preservation, Tokyo University of the Arts in 2004. He was involved with the Institute of Fine Arts National Treasure Repair Center in Kyoto for 11 years, devoted himself into restoration of national treasures. In terms of both technique and sense, Osone's creation is based on what he has done as a restorer touching and researching the timeless ancient Buddha statues for many years.

Japanese dry lacquer technique statue (kanshitsu-zo) is made by putting a hemp cloth on the original form and solidifying it with Japanese lacquer (urushi) to make an external form, then adjusting the surface with a mixture of wooden powder, "urushi" lacquer and flour (a thick paste called kokuso lacquer), and coloring it, repeating this process again and again. One of the most well-known works made using dry lacquer technique is the Asura statue at Kofuku-ji, which is an Asian-specific technique often used to create Buddha statues during the Nara period (710-784). However, historically, in the Heian period (794-1192), this time-consuming and expensive technique had almost disappeared as a major technique for making Buddha statues, and has never been revived thereafter. However, Osone has revived this technique for making his sculptures.

Osone brings Japanese lacquer technique to portray unique characteristics of animals, and we can feel its texture, temperature, moisture, and even a touch of flesh. Osone uses two types of dry lacquer technique depending on the motifs that he wants to make. One is the hollow dry lacquer method (dakkatsu kanshitsu)* and the other is the wood-core dry lacquer method (mokushin kanshitsu)**. * The hollow dry lacquer method: putting layers of hemp soaked with lacquer on a rough core of clay, and then removing the core. A wooden frame reinforces the statue inside to prevent warping. ** The wood-core dry lacquer method: carving the basic shape of the statue from wood. Kokuso lacquer is common for both methods to make details for finishing. His works are more than realistic. We even unexpectedly realize the strong presence and characteristics of each animal.

The 4 new works to be shown are all made using wooden-core dry lacquer. Osone repeatedly visited places to see the models, which are all existing animals, such as a mini-pig, "Chaco" and a Holstein "Kokkou ". So many wordless meetings with the animals enabled him to achieve these remarkably beautiful sculptures. Their facial expressions and poses are unexpected for viewers, because they are totally different from typical images which we see in illustrated books. By introducing 8 works, including 4 new works, the exhibition aims to showcase a world of dry lacquer sculptures as portraits of animals with their own unique names. We do hope you find the opportunity to see and enjoy them.

Toeko Tatsuno, Yoko Matsumoto, Shu Takahoshi, Katsura Funakoshi, Hiroshi Noda, Yozo Hamaguchi, Keiko Minami, Syuzo Takiguchi, Yayoi Kusama, Tatsuo Ikeda, Kikuji Yamashita

Genichiro Inokuma, Masuo Ikeda, Yayoi Kusama, Ryonosuke Shimomura, Atsushi Suwa, Hiroshi Noda, Yozo Hamaguchi, Ryonosuke Fukui, Ben Nicholson

Kenzo Okada, Masaaki Yamada, Syusaku Arakawa, Toko Shinoda, Nobuya Hitsuda, Shigejiro Sano, Yozo Hamaguchi, Katsura Funakoshi, Keiko Minami, Yayoi Kusama

Masuo Ikeda, Keiko Minami, Yozo Hamaguchi, Ryonosuke Fukui, Umetaro Azechi, Toshio Arimoto, Taro Okamoto, Yayoi Kusama, Toeko Tatsuno, Katsura Funakoshi, Toko Shinoda, Ben Nicholson

Shinya Hitsuda, Sokichi Suga, Shigejiro Sano, Masuo Ikeda, Keiko Minami, Yayoi Kusama, Toeko Tatsuno, Masaaki Yamada

Shinro Otake, Yuki Onodera, Yayoi Kusama, Atushi Suwa, Toeko Tatsuno, Katsura Funakoshi and more

Masayoshi Aigasa, Hiroshi Asada, Hiroshi Akana, Masuo Ikeda, Genichiro Inokuma,Yayoi Kusama, Syuzo Takiguchi, Ryonosuke Fukui, Makoto Mikami, Takeo Yamaguchi

Masuo Ikeda, Onodera Yuki, Yayoi Kusama, Atsushi Suwa, Toeko Tatsuno, Keiko Minami

Kumi Sugai, Chuta Kimura, Masuo Ikeda, Hiroshi Noda and more