展览预告丨北川宏人个展《斗篷和面具，内与外》

東京画廊＋BTAP荣幸宣布将于2023年11月5日（周日）举办日本雕塑艺术家北川宏人个展《斗篷和面具，内与外》。

1990年北川宏人从金泽艺术大学雕塑系毕业后，只身前往意大利——一个在艺术家看来是“有人情味、有泥土气息、某种意义上说具有强烈现实感”的具象雕刻发源地的未知国度。北川在意大利学到了决定性的赤陶技术，他几乎不画草稿，直接上手用粘土造型，他是一边做一边思考的艺术家。赤陶这种在意大利被边缘化的材料却让北川找到了绳文时代的单纯与自由。朴拙的质地以及在过程中保留艺术家创作痕迹如拍打、形塑甚至指印等的特质，因而成为贴近艺术家期待和感受的媒材。

北川宏人在意大利受到许多雕塑大师的影响，包括Marino Marini、Giacomo Manzừ、Alberto Giacometti，然而他的内心始终思念着故乡并希望作品呈现出日本精神，更确切的说是传达出属于他这个世代的日本年轻人特质和他们的内心世界，因而在1999 年之后，他的作品渐渐显现出动漫的风格。北川说他想创作的“仅仅是人”，他将自己的感受融入到一件件雕塑的创作中，拙朴的材料与当代年轻人时尚的形象结合，甚至有些作品加入了“斗篷”和“口罩”等元素。将具有现代具象特征的雕塑与这些波普元素融合在一起。遮蔽住部分脸或身体从而具有了某种神秘色彩。

本次展览将展出北川宏人新作十余件。在过去几年的疫情肆虐下，人们探寻内心的机会增加了，在这个时代中，注视着他人和自我，一边思考一边生活的现代人，外在表现与其内在必然不同。北川在创作时，用表面的装饰、色彩、质感以及表情相结合，营造出作品独特的气质。这些作品既是陶瓷的物体，同时也是人物雕塑。

本次展览将持续到2023年12月9日，届时欢迎您莅临参观。

Tokyo Gallery + BTAP is delighted to announce a solo exhibition of Japanese sculptor Hiroto Kitagawa, "Cape and Mask, Inside and Out," at the gallery on November 5, 2023.

After graduating from the Sculpture Department of Kanazawa University of Arts in 1990, Kitagawa traveled to Italy, an unknown country that the artist considered to be the birthplace of figurative sculptures that are "humane, earthy, and intensely realistic." Kitagawa learned critical techniques of making terracotta in Italy, where he wouldn’t need to make sketches but model with clay directly by hand, which allowed him to become an artist who thought while doing. Terracotta, a material marginalized in Italy, led Kitagawa to reconnect it with the simplicity and freedom of the Jomon era. Its texture and preservation of the artist's touch- including tapping, molding, and even fingerprints- fit the ideal medium of Kitagawa's expectations and sensibilities.

Although many master sculptors in Italy, including Marino Marini, Giacomo Manzừa, and Alberto Giacometti, may have influenced Hiroto Kitagawa, he was nostalgic for his home country. He wished his works would embody the Japanese spirit and, more specifically, convey the inner worlds of the Japanese youth of his time. Thus, after 1999, his works gradually exhibited anime style and features. According to the artist, he only wanted to “create people” that would allow him to integrate his feelings into each sculpture, combining simple materials with the fashionable image of contemporary youth, even adding elements such as "capes" and "masks" to some of his works. Kitagawa introduced pop cultural elements into figurative sculptures while attributing degrees of enigma with a partially covered face or body.

This exhibition will showcase more than ten new works by Hiroto Kitagawa. As people wore masks amid the global pandemic, they’ve had more opportunities to explore their inner selves. In a time when contemporaries pay attention to others and themselves, their self-expressions ultimately vary from their inner experience. Therefore, when Kitagawa made an artwork, he rendered a unique temperament for each figure by exploring the surface's decoration, color, and texture. In other words, these works are both ceramic objects and portrait sculptures.

This exhibition will run until December 9, 2023, when you are welcome to visit.