Onishi Gallery

Onishi Gallery is proud to present, per­spec­tives, an exhi­bi­tion of pho­tographs by two Asian artists, Yojiro Imasaka and Jun Ahn. The exhi­bi­tion, March 2 to 13, 2010, will be Imasaka and Ahn’s first exhi­bi­tion at the gallery. The open­ing recep­tion will take place, March 4th, from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m.

The young inter­na­tional artists were inspired by their past expe­ri­ences in their home coun­tries, Japan and South Korea. Even though Asian cul­ture has embraced the value of indi­vid­ual asser­tion recently, social autho­riza­tion still exists phys­i­cally and psy­cho­log­i­cally. The way of think­ing is dif­fer­ent among gen­er­a­tions, yet young peo­ple still keep their dark and depressed feel­ings hid­den inside. They seek to dis­close their inher­ent con­flicts by express­ing them­selves in a non-verbal way. The con­trast between Imasaka and Ahn’s per­spec­tive is remark­able, yet their pic­tures are some­how related. Imasaka takes black and white pic­tures of build­ings, look­ing up.

Yojiro Imasaka was born in 1983 in Hiroshima, Japan. He is cur­rently enrolled at the Pratt Insti­tute in the Pho­tog­ra­phy MFA pro­gram. Since he was raised in Hiroshima, he has always had an oppor­tu­nity to observe the Atomic Bomb Dome, the remains of a five story build­ing, the only one left stand­ing for miles after the explo­sion. The Dome exists as a Sym­bol of Peace, so that no one for­gets the ter­ri­ble inci­dent which hap­pened dur­ing World War II. The dome is the sur­viv­ing stonework facade of a Beaux Art style per­for­mance hall. The con­trast between strong shadow and intense light is from the moment of the explo­sion of the atomic bomb. The lines and forms of the build­ings try to reach the light and melt together. The light also includes the mean­ing of hope and a ray of light in the dark­ness. All is reflected in his work.

Jun Ahn was born in 1981 in Seoul, South Korea. She started her grad­u­ate study in Pho­tog­ra­phy at the Pratt Insti­tute in 2007. She is cur­rently enrolled at the Par­sons School of Design, study­ing for a MFA. She posi­tions her body in land­mark struc­tures or places that have per­sonal sig­nif­i­cance. The places include: The Burj Al Arab in Dubai, 63 build­ings in Korea, and her apart­ment in New York City. She describes her pho­tog­ra­phy as “a cap­tured, recre­ated moment of per­for­mance, rather than a staged ges­ture.” Her per for­ma­tive ges­tures, includ­ing jump­ing from a land­mark, are induced from the fragility and insan­ity that every youth has expe­ri­enced. In com­par­i­son to her dark con­cept, her pic­tures are color and refined. They seem to give us the energy of life.