Onishi Gallery is proud to present Hideto Imai’s solo exhibition, “Moderation,” as the first of our two summer shows. Similarly to his previous show, “Stock Box” this exhibition’s theme was born from the experience of the recent earthquake in Japan. Since the earthquake, Imai has increasingly felt the importance of “daily life.” He recognizes the significance of obtaining “things” and “food” in everyday life. Today we are surrounded by all our necessities and subsequently lose a sense of striving to obtain them.
Although all of his previous work utilized solely charcoal, for the first time in his artistic career, Imai chooses to use color. Through his unique vision of society and the economy, Imai explains that he sees daily life in bar codes, a series of ones and zeros, and a world of color and light appears to him in black and white.
Through this exhibition, Imai chooses to explore further the concept of the inventory cycle and the push and pull between the stock index and production index. He examines the destructive cycle of accumulating inventory as the economy worsens and reduction of stock by suppressing production once more. This realization has become an important indicator to analyze economic trends.
Imai, born in 1968 in Japan’s Mie Prefecture, has exhibited extensively in Japan and Italy.