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Asian Contemporary Art Week — Ephemeral

Asian Con­tem­po­rary Art Week:
March 15 — March 24, 2008
www.acaw.net

Ephemeral:
March 12 — April 12, 2008

The Onishi Gallery is pleased to present Ephemeral, an exhi­bi­tion of paint­ings, sculp­tures, and pho­tographs by seven Japan­ese artists. Ephemeral is the gallery’s con­tri­bu­tion to this year’s Asian Con­tem­po­rary Art Week, and it is the inau­gural exhi­bi­tion in the gallery’s newly remod­eled space in Chelsea. Co-curating Ephemeral are Mako Wakasa and Nana Onishi.

Natsu Ephemeral Aurora

Ephemeral will open on March 12 and will con­tinue to April 12. The open­ing recep­tion will take place at the gallery on Thurs­day, March 20, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Ephemeral’s co-curators have selected works that evoke the Japan­ese aes­thetic of tem­po­ral­ity. The exhibition’s early-spring tim­ing coin­cides with the sea­son of cherry blos­som viewing—traditionally an occa­sion for reflect­ing on the muta­bil­ity of life while watch­ing the falling of the pale pink petals. Ephemeral explores the impli­ca­tions of imper­ma­nence for life and for art.

Ephemeral com­prises works by Nagai Megumi, Natsu, Akira Ike­zoe, Tomoe Murakami, Tet­suomi Sukeda, Ari Tabei, and Aruha Yamaoka. Nagai Megumi’s metic­u­lously painted fig­ures on wood sum­mon the viewer into a dream world of fan­tas­tic crea­tures and hap­pen­ings. Natsu con­cocts stun­ning works in beads.

Akira Ike­zoe offers oil paint­ings of flow­ers, insects, but­ter­flies, and drag­ons that are sug­ges­tive of kimono pat­terns. Tomoe Murakami cap­tures starry night­capes in del­i­cately ren­dered pho­tographs that are stud­ies in sub­tle chro­matic vari­a­tion. Per­for­mance artist Ari Tabei appears in a long dress that she cre­ated like a silk­worm in a cocoon by rolling and tying together numer­ous white wrap­ping papers. Tet­suomi Sukeda’s pho­tographs of Japan­ese sub­ur­bia fea­ture tan­ta­liz­ing glimpses of a teenage girl. Aruha Yamaoka presents pho­to­graphic close-ups of por­tions of her face, hands, and hair in dusky tones.

Asian Con­tem­po­rary Art Week con­nects lead­ing New York City gal­leries and muse­ums in a city­wide array of exhi­bi­tions, recep­tions, lec­tures, and per­for­mances. The week focuses on the broad spec­trum of works pro­duced by Asian con­tem­po­rary artists in their home nations and abroad. Orga­niz­ing the week-long pro­gram of events is the Asian Con­tem­po­rary Art Con­sor­tium, a group­ing of promi­nent muse­ums, gal­leries, and collectors.

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