ACG eyes: Moving images and Drawings - narrative -
18 November, 2008 -26 December, 2008




ARTCOURT Gallery starts a series of small exhibitions beside main exhibitions.
As the first exhibition of the series, "Moving images and Drawings - narrative -" introduces the works by young artists, Mayuko Kanazawa, Yukiko Nishiyama, Yasuyoshi Botan and Poh Wang, who create a delicate world filled with elements from which narratives originate.
When a viewer see a piece of work, the perceivable elements that compose the piece, such as images, colors, forms and sounds etc, create a kind of "stream" between the piece and the viewer, being linked to his/her inner and private elements, for example memories of dreams and unnameable images sink deeply in his/her heart.
It could be called "a narrative" which is woven from an intimate interaction between a viewer and a piece of work flowing out from chinks of a theoretical concept behind it.
Moving images and drawings include a lot of factors of "stream", so what narratives will be originated between you and their works when you leave yourself into their streams?




Aeneas Wilder “Collider”
18 November, 2008 -13 December, 2008




With careful consideration Aeneas Wilder piles up a large quantities of machined wood according to certain rules and principles, without the use of any fixings or adhesives. Through this process he creates fragile architectural/organic shaped installations; walls, gently waved towers, and a myriad of other open structured volumes.

Through simple materials combined with balance, gravity and friction, each structure and the surrounding space are filled with an intensity, containing silence and the promise of unfolding chaos.
For this exhibition a 5m sphere will be installed that could be said to symbolise the phenomenon of "collision", one of the most important concepts related to his work.
As a part of the exhibition, the working process is opened to the public on November 15th for the first time in Japan.


Hiroshi Mizuta Exhibition – “Hide-and-Seek”
21 October, , 2008 - 8 November, 2008

On seeing an everyday scene, there are expressions, feelings of presence – of odd things that pop unexpectedly into one’s field of vision.  Pigeons, weeds, gravel, roadside trees, balconies… and bringing in to relate with them as one joins the interaction:  playing, insecurity, fear…
Hiroshi Mizuta is a graduate of Kyoto City University of Arts Graduate School.  Recently, he has been showered with attention due to his remarkable handling of oil pigments and his improvisations with color, producing paintings that faithfully express their subjects even as they convey a super-real physicality.
Now, for the first time, this emerging young artist will be holding a solo exhibition at Artcourt Gallery.  Continuing from his appearance at Art Osaka 2008, this exhibition will feature the latest works in his series of flocks of pigeons – dubious dwellers captured from every angle imaginable, as well as new works of roadside trees and balconies.  Via a display arrangement that interweaves the human-made with the natural, the viewer will be given the opportunity to experience the enjoyment of seeing these true-to-life paintings through a mysterious game of hide-and-seek.  We hope you will join us in this exploration.

“There are various kinds of hide-and-seek.  Hiding oneself in the shadows, assimilating to the surrounding scenery, disappearing among things that one resembles.  The interesting thing is that while there are times when the creative ingenuity for hiding oneself this way is conscious, there are also times when it happens unconsciously. Through my works, I am hoping to convey that the many correct understandings, and equally many misunderstandings, that are accumulated in our daily lives are each valuable in and of themselves.”?
– Hiroshi Mizuta (from his notes for the “Hide-and-Seek” Exhibition)



Hitoshi Nomura Exhibition
Gravitational Shape and Flavor
— The Sun, Meteorites and The Body
24 September, 2008 - 18 October, 2008



The process of sincerely regarding, documenting and then reconstructing, on the basis of an original methodology, as the workings of all existence, and the universe that is the source of boundless space-time, as always within an indivisible relation with himself has been the constant, earnest occupation of Hitoshi Nomura for the past forty years. Throughout this vast work, photographs have always been Nomura’s eyes and ears and limbs, in a sense, the second body that supports these acts of expression.
This year’s exhibition is an experiment to reconsider and reorganize these many years of activity from a completely new perspective, focusing on the medium of photography that has been a constant, central means of expression for Nomura, and via a dynamic composition, to present these photographic works along with new sculptural works.
The sun, meteorites and the body, as the three central elements forming the main compositional theme of this exhibition, bring to mind the fundamental concord arising between all existing things that is gravity (attraction). And at the same time, the shaped things and shapeless things that appear through the interaction of these elements attempt to awaken in the viewer a fine and sharp sensitivity in order to perceive the signs of their existence. This exhibition may also be regarded as a prelude to new developments appearing in Hitoshi Nomura’s art. We look forward to seeing you there.




The Sound of Architecture, Volume 3 – Microcosmos
Yukio Fujimoto + Architects
September 19, 2008 Gallery Hours: 11:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. Talk & Demonstration 7:00 p.m.~
September 20, 2008 Gallery Hours: 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.




As the forms of expression “art” may take in our time grow ever more diverse, the activity we call “art appreciation” is becoming remarkably multifaceted as well. ARTCOURT Gallery is operated with the belief that a gallery mediating between art and its appreciators must acquire flexibility to respond to the changes that occur in both, and must also search for a wholly new way of being.
As part of our efforts to obtain this kind of new orientation, ARTCOURT Gallery is holding the “The Sound of Architecture”, an experimental project organized collaboratively with artist Yukio Fujimoto and architects, now in its third year. This year, in an especially experimental effort, various unique and gradually developing devices will be proposed whereby the ARTCOURT space will be transformed, from its condition as a “box” for the display and appreciation of artwork, into a “magnetic field” that activates both work-to-person and person-to-person interactions and rouses the intellectual curiosity of the visitor.
We hope you will join us as we eat, drink and be merry in this spatial composition experiment at ARTCOURT Gallery.




P&E Exhibition 2008
group A: 21 August, 2008 - 30 August, 2008
group B: 4 September, 2008 - 13 September, 2008



P&E is an open-application exhibition that has been organized by ARTCOURT Gallery yearly since 2005.  Applications are received from a wide range of ambitiously productive artists, offering each artist the opportunity to work freely in our museum-level exhibition space and thereby address audiences directly through her or his own creative nature.  In the open discussions held during the exhibition period, the participants will be able to engage in frank exchanges with commentators and gain objective perspectives on the pursuit of production motives and the degree of completion in their works.  Now in its fourth year, P&E 2008 continues to feature participants selected by portfolio evaluation (Presentation), with thirteen artists in Group A and twelve in Group B, each group showing for a ten-day period (Exhibition).  We hope you will enjoy this year’s long-awaited encounter with emerging artists!



Artists :
group A : Kyoko Hayashi / Noriaki Hayashi / Yuko Igawa / Yoshitaka Ito / Hrioski Kanayama / Yuriko Kawasaka /
Kozo Kishimoto / Kana Komori / Takeshi Matsugami / Yukie Monnai / Nobuya Matsuo / Aika Sumida / Kana Takeuchi /

group B : Mikiko Hayashi / Yuki Hirakawa / Mayuko Kanazawa / Ryo Kato / Michael J Migliacci / Kaoru Murakami /
Yukiko Nishiyama / Kayoko Okamoto / Yoshifumi Sasano / Ryota Shioya / Yuji Tajima / Masahiro Yamamoto




Art Court Frontier 2008 #6
4 July, 2008 - 19 July, 2008



Artitsts : ARIKO / Yuki Hayashi / Genta Ishizuka / Motonori Inagaki / Kim Insook / Takashi Kunitani /
Mari Nakai / Masakazu Onishi / Kiyoshi Sakashita / Yukako Suzuki / Shingo Tanaka / Yuko Uryu

The sixth annual Art Court Frontier, a project juxtaposing emerging artists from the Kansai area.
This year’s exhibition brings together under one roof the works of twelve truly promising, dynamic artists, all from or currently residing in Kansai.  The artists featured in this year’s program were selected by obtaining one recommendation each from a total of twelve persons currently active at the forefront of the art world, according to the following four categories:  artist, curator/art critic, journalist/art writer and collector/art appreciator.
This year, with 2003 Art Court Frontier featured artist Kohei Nawa participating as a presenter, we have no doubt that the upcoming exhibition will be brimming over with fascinating indications of the pulse of Kansai today.  We hope you will join us for this project, which continues to excel in its role as a testing ground for emerging artists.




ART OSAKA 2008
25 July, 2008 - 27 July, 2008



Artists : Hiroshi Mizuta / Kenji Yanobe

Story…
Room 1115 in Djima Hotel at A.M.0:00 on 25th July 2008.  
“Naniwa no Torayan”, who is a ventriloquial doll with a bald head with cmobed-over hair and a small moustache,
is going to meet a visitor from Paris in his hometown, Osaka.
In the room, the paintings by Hiroshi Mizuta, who is a young and promising artist with his first solo exhibition near at hand this autmn, are displayed and the chandelier with a sparkling tiny sun by Kenji Yanobe is glowing…
“Torako-san!” (Torayan runs up to his guest from Paris.) 
“You know, I came from the Eihhel-tower (Eiffel-tower) in Paris!” (Torako-san runs up to him with a smile.)
ART OSAKA 2008, the three-day drama the most ever brimming over with love and humor begins. 




Sculpture Path 2009 - inside exhibition :
The sky, the wind and the water -
10 June, 2008 - 21 June, 2008



?Artists?
Hiroshi Asatani / Akira Ida / Masafumi Maita / Toshiaki Sakae /
Chu Sato / Kei Takemata / Mistuo Takeuchi / Noboru Tanaka




Oshakasama no Tanagokoro
Aiko Miyanaga, Kazuki Hitoosa, Shioyasu Tomoko
7 May, 2008 - 24 May, 2008



In the Buddhist culture, when a person is easily manipulated, it is often said that the person is unconsciously, "skillfully handled or made to dance in the palms of Buddha". In Japanese, this is called Oshakasama no Tanagokoro. However this exhibition regards Oshakasama no Tanagokoro as a kind of gracious and precious " blessing " which protects and encourages us.
The exhibition's aim is to find a new and universal value of this concept through contemporary art.
More than two years ago this concept of Oshakasama no Tanagokoro was entrusted to these three artists: Miyanaga, Hitoosa and Shioyasu. Each fostering and deepening it over the years and finally, as results of their speculations and explorations, their different expressions are unveiled at this exhibition. Through repeated trial and error, wandering from the real world to their own world attempting to surpass their limitations, ' In the palms of Buddha' (Oshakasama no Tanagokoro) could mean to them the real world and at the same time, their own hands. Sometimes transforming and sublimating into their own expression, the ever changing world, society, environment and the inner truth , they create a world from their "reality".
Are we able to see in our journey traveling in the world created by their " reality " the process that leads to its creation? The huge world of " that man " which spreads to the end of the earth, can be seen, as we are held in his palms like being held in the cradle of life.