From Friday, July 2, 2024, to Saturday, July 13, 2024, we will be holding the group exhibition “Emerging Echoes: Presenting Realism” at Gallery COLORBEAT in Seoul, South Korea. This group exhibition features seven emerging artists who have been featured on aaploit (including those scheduled to be featured). It marks the second collaboration with Gallery COLORBEAT, following Lee Ye Rim’s solo exhibition held this past February.

How do we navigate this era of uncertainty and confusion? The sense of stagnation in Japanese society extends broadly across economic, social, and political spheres. The end of lifetime employment, the dilemma between autonomy and cooperation, and the suffocating pressure of excessive personal responsibility brought about by the spread of the internet. As if responding to these contemporary realities, the artists participating in this exhibition are creating modern works through their own unique perspectives. This exhibition presents the reality of the present as depicted by a younger generation of artists. Although this is a group exhibition in Seoul, South Korea, we would be delighted if you could come and view it.

Participating Artists (in alphabetical order)

Aoi Michimata

Aoi Michimata has a strong interest in media and satire, and explores ways of depicting contemporary society using woodblock print reproduction techniques. Her representative series, “Kafka’s Staircase,” vividly captures the plight of young people navigating a chaotic society where a sense of belonging is unclear. By employing woodblock printing, she fuses a whimsical, picture-book-like aesthetic with serious, thought-provoking themes, creating a unique fusion of form and content.

Dayama Hakusai

Dayama Hakusai creates works under the theme of “depicting energetic girls with medicine that makes you feel better.” The artist produces expressive works using the colors of the OPP sheets that wrap the medicine. Viewers are likely to be surprised by the sheer variety of colors in these sheets and find themselves wondering just how many different types of medicine exist. While medicine has a positive aspect—curing illness—and a negative aspect—the risk of dependency—Dayama focuses solely on extracting the colors, maintaining a neutral stance. Although prescriptions are included with the works, the medicine has already been removed, so they differ from actual prescriptions. Nevertheless, encountering Dayama’s work is sure to evoke a sense of vitality and energy.

Hikaru Ishiguro

Hikaru Ishiguro creates works by superimposing the mental landscapes that emerge from his inner self onto objects found in his surroundings. Although Ishiguro studied Japanese painting, he freely chooses his supports—such as canvas or wood panels—and experiments with new mediums, including acrylic paints. His practice has expanded to include installations and three-dimensional works. The imagery he creates, inspired by the long winters of the Tohoku region—his roots—and the spirituality nurtured within them, evokes animism, creating the illusion that voices can be heard emanating from the canvas.

Itokawa En

Itokawa En began her career as an NFT creator in January 2023. In addition to the artworks themselves, NFTs are characterized by how communities are built and how they engage with existing communities. As part of a 100-day challenge, Itokawa listed 100 works on an NFT marketplace. Supported by fans who followed this challenge, she built a broad and deep NFT community in less than a year. This also demonstrates a new form of community seen in Web3.

Maho Haruna

Maho Haruna reconstructs the composition and color of paintings, creating works that seem to emerge from the paintings themselves. She describes her process as spending her days solely on painting; as her drawings accumulate, paintings gradually emerge from them. Challenging herself with random compositions, she approaches her work as if she were a Shugendo ascetic, extracting paintings from a mountain of accumulated drawings.

Nene Tatsumi

After graduating from the Faculty of Law at Keio University, Nene Tatsumi completed a master’s program at the Sorbonne University Graduate School of Law and studied oil painting at the Tokyo University of the Arts Graduate School. Drawing on her background in law, she explores the human form through the theme of human sin and punishment. Through portraits with intense gazes and scenes depicting accidents, she directly portrays human desires and actions, as well as the resulting emotional fluctuations.

Yuuki Nanya

Yuuki Nanya delves into emotional expressions that evolve with shifts in time and culture. She explores the suffocating tension arising from the disconnect between social norms, supposedly “correct” attitudes and gestures, and the gaze of others versus one’s inner self, translating these into her artwork. By reinterpreting negative emotions as positive ones, she creates works that stir the emotions of the audience. Through images that are both abstract and concrete, he conveys deep emotions and expresses the generational gap.

We would be honored if you could visit this group exhibition in Seoul, South Korea. For inquiries regarding this exhibition in Japan, please contact info@aaploit.com.

Exhibition Overview

Emerging Echoes: Presenting Realism

Dates: Tuesday, July 2, 2024 – Saturday, July 13, 2024

Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 11:00 AM – 6:00 PM (Closed: Sunday, Monday)

Venue: Gallery COLORBEAT https://www.instagram.com/gallerycolorbeat/

06561 Seoul, Seocho-gu, Donggwang-ro 15-gil 3, 201 (Bangbae-dong 792-21)