Morikawa Saku solo exhibition "Room I"
shimokitazawaartsFebruary 8 - 18, 2024
1-7pm
Closed on Tue and Wed.
*Opening reception：Feb. 8, 6-8pm
☆Talk event
February 11, 5-6pm
Suzuki Moeka × Morikawa Saku
Suzuki Moeka, a doctoral student in the Advanced Art Expression Department at Tokyo University of the Arts, and artist Morikawa Saku will have a free talk about Morikawa's works and art. We also welcome questions from the visitors. Please join us.
*Anyone can participate in the opening reception and talk event.
Shimokitazawa Arts is pleased to present solo exhibition "Room I" by Morikawa Saku. Morikawa Saku was born in Tokyo, 2001. He is currently in 3rd year of Tama Art University, Graphic Design. Starting with winning FACE2023, he's actively applying to public exhibitions, and constantly receiving offers to exhibit his eye-catching works. The slightly dull, pale-colored paintings of oil paints and oil pastels are not only gentle, but also have a sense of depth, with a touch of unease adding spice. Morikawa, who loves art history and studied design, values the background of art works and uses his innate sense to bring dichotomous elements together in both paintings and ceramics. Please take a look at Morikawa Saki's long-awaited first solo exhibition, where his works are being completed with each exhibition.
Artist Statement
I create paintings and ceramics based on the theme of "rooms" as places where various things live together.
The goat motif is treated as both a sacred entity and a symbol of the devil, and is at the core of my work as a symbol that coexists with these two extremes. Similarly, a room can be seen as a space where good and bad, beauty and ugliness, order and chaos coexist. From these motifs, I focus on the gap between ideal and reality and undefined sensory consciousness, and explore new perspectives on the inner self and social contradictions.
To solo exhibition "Room I" by Morikawa Saku
Suzuki Moeka
Using painting and ceramics as media, Morikawa creates works that express his inner self by painting motifs that simultaneously contain opposing images such as beauty and ugliness, front and back, good and evil. Creatures with "horns'' that appear frequently are painted as contradictory creatures, such as being objects of demonic worship like goats, or being treated as sacred objects. Motifs such as "fish" trying to get into the shirt or going to the other room, and people whose expressions are unclear are still figurative, but they are unrealistic compositions. It is painted with gentle colors of oil paint, blending the surreal and the real.
The impression that comes to mind when looking at a work is an impression that has been interpreted selfishly by the unconscious mind of us viewers, but what is it that forms this consciousness? If you take a close look at Morikawa's works, you will notice that the boundaries between good and evil are not divided into two by inserting a / between them, but that the boundaries between them are slightly transparent and overlap. Painting allows these contradictions to coexist freely and naturally, and a "room'' can store them indefinitely. When we look at Morikawa Saku's paintings that reveal his inner self, we are looking at our own inner self. While checking each contradiction that is dotted in this "room".
Morikawa Saku
Born in Tokyo, 2001.
2024 currently in Tama Art University, Graphic Design, Tokyo
favorite artists：Cecily Brown, John Currin
Exhibition
2023
"True Colors" ARTDYNE, Tokyo
"biscuit gallery Christmas exhibition" biscuit gallery karuizawa, Karuizawa, Japan
"Small works exhibition by selected artists of FACE2023" REIJINSHA GALLERY, Tokyo
Art Drifting Classroom 2023 Intermediate Exhibition “Wasted Sunny” Bigakko Studio, Tokyo
MEET YOUR ART FESTIVAL 2023 "Time to Change" B&C HALL, Tokyo
OIL ART MARKET 2023, nap palm, Tokyo
D-art,ART2023 Nagoya, Matsuzakaya Nagoya, Nagoya
ACT Art Award, Excellence Award Group Exhibition “Ei” Art Complex Center, Tokyo
Duo show "process / trace" MEDEL GALLERU SHU, Tokyo
"Man holding a goat" Tokyo University of the Arts, Geidai Shokudo, Showcase Ueno, Tokyo
GEISAI#22, Tokyo Big Site, Tokyo
The 41st Ueno Royal Museum Grand Prize Exhibition, The Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo
ACT Art Award, Winners Exhibition “Ei” Art Complex Center, Tokyo
ARTISTNEWGATE, Finalist Exhibition, Abeno Harukas, Osaka
Five Art Universities Exchange Exhibition, Ginza Yokyo Hall, Tokyo
"IIME FUKURAME in TOKYO 2023" Daimaru Tokyo, Tokyo
FACE2023, Sompo Museum of Art, Tokyo
2022
Changthing gallery exhibition 2022, Changthing gallery, Tokyo
"∴" Tama Art University Hachioji Campus, Tokyo
Five Art Universities Exchange Small Works Exhibition, 3331 Arts Chiyoda 104 Gallery, Tokyo
2021
Liquitex the challenge 2021, Mitaka City Arts and Culture Center, Tokyo
"memento mori" Shinjuku Ophthalmologist（GANKA） Gallery, Tokyo
Award
2023
ACT Art Award, Excellence Award
The 41st Ueno Royal Museum Grand Prize Exhibition, Winner
IIME FUKURAME in TOKYO 2023, Art Factory Award, YOD gallery Award
FACE2023, Winner
2022
Changthing gallery exhibition 2022, Winner
2021
Liquitex the challenge 2021, Liquitex Prize University Category
