Dates｜〈PART 1〉September 17 – October 9, 2023
Dates｜〈PART 2〉October 28 – November 19, 2023
Venue｜MEM  map
Open Hours｜13:00 – 19:00　 (During Art Week Tokyo from Nov. 2 to 5 opens 10:00–19:00)
The gallery is closed on Mondays that are not national holidays. (Except when Monday falls on a holiday, in which case the gallery is open and closed the following day.)
Telephone｜+81-3-6459-3205

Four years since Yoshi Kitayama’s last exhibition at MEM, we are pleased to announce his seventh solo exhibition with us, History = Reason (　) Emotion.

His new work, which the title of this exhibition borrows from, painstakingly recreates his clay sculpted human figures on large-scale Torinoko paper using a Rotring mechanical pencil.

After depiction, in the next step in Kitayama’s ritual of production, he destroys the clay human figures and proceeds to make them anew. In the background of the picture plane filled from corner to corner with the heads of human figures, other figures perform various actions that appear to be caricatures of the animalistic behavior of humans. While this work is the newest addition to his Icon series, Kitayama also continues to produce works for his abstract Universe series. Initially, the Universe series portrayed forms reminiscent of real stars and planets, as the title implies, but now simply consist of countless small circles or dots covering the entire picture plane from corner to corner. Kitayama, who continues to draw these millimeter-sized circles day in and day out, says one circle depicts a single universe and that their totality is also another single universe.

These two styles of paintings are the wheels on which Kitayama’s artistic activity advances. Through these two painting styles, Kitayama continues to inquire into the meaning of his birth into this world at the end of the endless chain of life. History = Reason (　) Emotion will focus on Kitayama’s paintings, and the following exhibition will also feature new works centered around his sculptural works.

Related Exhibitions

Oku-Noto Triennale 2023
Yoshio Kitayama, The human is started from baby
Dates｜September 23 – November 12, 2023
Venue｜38-48-10, Kashihara, Hōryūmachi, Suzu City, Ishikawa prefecture, Japan

“MEMORIES 02” selected by Tomio Koyama
Dates｜September 20 – October 8, 2023
Venue｜CADAN YURAKUCHO (Tokyo)