The Ashok Jain Gallery on the Lower East Side is currently presenting a group show entitled Independent New York presented by the organization Tagboat Japan.
The show features a variety of work by 16 artists mostly from Taipei or Japan that range from paintings to mixed media installations. Two notable pieces that stand out are paintings made from wood panel and acrylic paint by Jim Hashimoto. The works, both entitled Cosmic Code 1 are composed of square tiles each with different patterns. According to his artist statement, the works reflect Hashimoto’s perception of the downhill direction of the world after World War II. He explains that the repetitive process of painting, carving, and shaving the material is an important part of his art. “I believe ‘time’ within my repetitive art works acts to make space for understanding corporeal and personal connections with time anew,” he says.
Another installation that truly stands out is one by an artist known as “M.yam” entitled Someone’s Window. The installation includes an excerpt from a book she wrote where she describes visiting an elderly neighbor in Tokyo about 30 years ago who had a shelf in her kitchen which she prayed daily over and contained items like detergent bottles, Buddha statues, family photos, religious figures, hand cream, and a bottle of Tabasco sauce. A detailed ceramic replica of the shelf and its contents are presented next to her book excerpt.
Also of note are Yutaka Okada’s works depicting birds (mostly owls) made from materials such as acrylic, pearl powder, and snow powder clay among other things, Harano’s illustrations of a young girl shown in different contexts, and Naritaka Satoh’s depictions of young girls and women with innocent doll-like faces and bodies with his series of charcoal and acrylic on paper/panel drawings.
The show was put together by Kenji Tokumitsu who is the CEO Tugboat Japan (a.k.a. Gallery Tagboat) which is an artists’ organization that connects art in Japan and the United States.
Kyoko Sato curated a special section on the website called “New York Standard”. She is an independent curator based in New York City who earned a degree in art history at Waseda University where she wrote her thesis on Jackson Pollock. She’s been living in the United States since 2002 and started her career as a freelance curator. She has worked at places like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and as a producer at NHK group. She has also held two exhibitions about the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011 and 2016.
The participating artists featured in her ‘Tagboat’ project (which is a booth exhibition) include Beth Moon, Johan Wahlstrom, Jamie Martinez (AF publisher), Marcellus Hall, Paul Brainard, Ivan Valtchev, and Egon Zippel. Additional information about these artists and Sato’s project can be found here.
Every year, Gallery Tagboat presents a booth exhibition event where young, budding artists can exhibit and sell their own artwork.
In addition to being a place to present new works at the event venue, it is also a place to discover artists that galleries will exhibit. Judges of the selected galleries will carefully evaluate the work, so it is important for the exhibiting artists for their future careers.
At Ashok Jain Gallery, 58 Hester St., through Nov. 19. The gallery is open Wed.-Sun. from 12-6 p.m.
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