Kensuke Koike || To wolf

 



























 



Kensuke Koike 
To wolf
opening on the 11th March 2017 at 6.pm



 



























 















 



Kensuke Koike, Bigger is better, tecnica mista, 2017



 




 


The A plus A gallery in Venice inaugurates the solo exhibition of Kensuke Koike, a Japanese artist with a series of new works created for the gallery's space.

 



Born in 1980, the artist became known in the Italian and international art scene for the painstaking technique with which he reconfigures photographic and video material in his collages, bearing a slow and precise reinterpretation of the image. In this way, the reality produced by existing material then rethought by the artist introduces an irony by which one is able to "think through things inside out," allowing the viewer to unlock new facets of reality.

 

His work could be summed up by an emblematic phrase shared by Koike to Marco Tagliafierro during an interview for APT diary:

 

"I cannot bear something from nothing. I don't think anybody can, unless they part from real facts. Everything we see and what we are surrounded by is the result of an arrangement. In short, there is always a collage."

 

In the history of literature and of art, there is no shortage of illustrative examples in which the image and the word were the subjects of investigation, and subsequently reinterpreted through an ironic lens to put forth a vision still more powerful and intriguing. With respect to the word, Robert Queneau and the more sophisticated Finnegans Wake by James Joyce; with regards to art, the avant-garde of the 60s, featuring artists like Jiří Kolář and Alighiero Boetti, played an important role.

 

The collage is often a seductive technique for the flavor it contains of a life caught in the cut paper, often lifted from newspapers and magazines or old photos. The temporal significance is two-fold. On one hand, repurposing the image forgets the original, and on the other the distended time of this technique is what gives it meaning. A paradox in a time characterized by haste and a fierce bombardment by the image, Kensuke Koike's work is all the more valuable. The artist does not only reinstate fragments of reality but goes further, creating a language that opens numerous other readings requiring time and attention on the part of the viewer in order to be decoded and revealed. A sort of initiative journey, a confrontation of Koike's work requires preparation.

 

The works created for A plus A begin with an installation in which the dichotomous transformation of material alludes to alchemical processes, manifesting in a sort of "dark forest" of petrified marble that draws the viewer in and subjects him to a sensory journey, dense with visual traps that exercise the viewer's capacity to read into a multiplicity of meanings. This is followed by a series of new collages and an installation in which the visitor finds himself immersed in a work made of the illusory material of the projected image.

 

The show is accompanied by a catalog featuring a critical text by Carlo Sala.

 

Kensuke Koike

Born in Nagoya, Japan in 1980. Lives and works between Venice and Slovenia. After receiving diplomas from the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice and from the IUAV, Koike participated in numerous solo and collective exhibitions in Italy and abroad, exhibiting in several prestigious venues. His works are held in both private and public collections. His work has also been commissioned by companies that have their own collections, among which are De Longhi and the Museo del Profumo di Savigliano (TO).

http://www.kensukekoike.com/ 






 

 

 

 

The Material Body of Art

until the 28th February 2017


The Material Body of Art is a group that will brings together works from Czech artists Jiří Kolář, Běla Kolářová, and Milan Knížák; from Slovenian artist from OHO, Marko Pogačnik, Irwin, and Matej Stupica; from Bosnian artist Mladen Miljanović; and from the Montenegrin Lenka Đorojević. The production of these artists is united by their use of collage.






 







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The breakfast pavilion at the Venice Biennale

10 -12 May 2017

During the opening of the Venice Biennale the A plus A gallery will host an event curated by Luca Lo Pinto 

Participating artists: Olaf Nicolai. Anne Sophie Berger, Nicole Wermers

 












 



















 














ARTISTS' NEWS

OHO - Marko Pogačnik 
57° Venice Biennale

Curated by Christine Macel
13 May - 26 November 


Kensuke Koike 
Short Circuits
A plus A project space

Curated by Aly Grimes 
Opening February 9

 

Enej Gala and Aleksander Velišček
Malutta Foundation - Monitor Gallery

Roma 

February 16 - March 2


Silvia Mariotti
From Object to Exposure
Tra - Treviso

Curated by Carlo Sala
 February 18 - April 2

 

A plus A

San Marco 3073

Venezia 30124

Tel: 041 2770466

www.aplusa.it