Japan Creative Centre (JCC) is pleased to present "Hiroshi Sugito: Paintings and Sketches", a special Arts Exhibition focusing on his most recent works - sketches, paintings, and photographs produced during a trip to Hanamaki in Japan's Iwate Prefecture. This exhibition provides an excellent opportunity to bring to Singapore the unique world of Sugito's paintings inspired by his trip to Iwate, featuring scenes of the magnificent mountains and surrounding countryside that enthralled him.

Hiroshi Sugito is one of Japan's best-known contemporary painters, on par with Yoshitomo Nara and Takashi Murakami. His patterns of colors create skies, seas, or theatrical stages with a strange depth that seems to draw viewers into the painting. Planes, ships, chairs, cars, and difficult-to-identify abstract forms emerge from thinly painted canvasses, as if beginning to tell a tale recalled from a dream.

©Hiroshi Sugito Photo: Hiroshi Sugito Courtesy: Tomio Koyama Gallery

Iwate Prefecture took a terrible hit from the recent earthquake and tsunami, but in the inland areas where the damage was relatively light there are still woodland and pastoral scenes of the sort written about by Kenji Miyazawa, a native of Hanamaki. Sugito's works seem to resonate strongly with the clear air and wide-open space of the land that Miyazawa called "Ihatov."

©Hiroshi Sugito Photo: Hiroshi Sugito Courtesy: Tomio Koyama Gallery

The exhibition also presents models produced by architect Jun Aoki for "leaves and fields (cobweb and spider) - Jun Aoki and Hiroshi Sugito." a collaboration with Sugito for the Aomori Museum of Art. Scheduled for April 2011, this joint exhibition was cancelled in the aftermath of the earthquake.

SUMMARY OF EVENTS:

1) Opening Ceremony, Tour Exhibition and Reception

DATE: Friday, 2nd December, 2011
TIME: 7.00pm to 9.00pm (Registration starts 6.30pm)
VENUE: Japan Creative Centre, 4 Nassim Road
Please kindly rsvp your interest via email to jcc@sn.mofa.go.jp by 1st December.

Guests are invited to the opening ceremony of "Hiroshi Sugito: Paintings and Sketches" Arts Exhibition with Minister Yamamoto and Mr. Sugito, followed by a tour exhibition of the works on display. There will also be a networking session and reception where light refreshments will be served. Guests are free to approach Mr. Sugito with questions during the session.

2) "Hiroshi Sugito: Paintings and Sketches" Arts Exhibition

DATE: Saturday, 3rd December, 2011 - Saturday, 14th January, 2012
(Please refer to our calendar for days of closure)
TIME: 10.00am to 6.00pm
VENUE: Japan Creative Centre, 4 Nassim Road

3) Artist Talk by Hiroshi Sugito and Jun Aoki
Moderator: Mr. Seng Yu Jin (Curator, The National Art Gallery, Singapore)

DATE: Saturday, 14th January, 2012
TIME: 2.00pm to 3.00pm (Registration starts 1.30pm)
VENUE: Japan Creative Centre, 4 Nassim Road
Please kindly rsvp your interest via email to jcc@sn.mofa.go.jp by 16th December.

In Spring 2011, Architect Jun Aoki worked with Hiroshi Sugito on a collaboration planned for installation in and around the Aomori Museum of Art. Aoki will talk about the Japanese concept of "ba" (place/shared space/context), examining the relationship between art and location from the perspective of the artist and from the perspective of the architect.

PROFILE OF HIROSHI SUGITO

Born in Aichi, Japan in 1970, Hiroshi Sugito lived in New York from age 4 to 14. He graduated in Japanese-style painting from the Aichi Prefectural University of Arts in 1992. Since then, retaining a base in Aichi, he has traveled and worked in many areas of Japan, and also in Austria, Germany, and America. On occasion he has produced collaborations with artists such as Yoshitomo Nara. His works are held by art museums such as the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Recent solo exhibitions include "April Song" at The Sculpture Garden Museum, Japan (2006) and "Focus" at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (2006). He participated in "The 7th Gwangju Biennale" (2008).

PROFILE OF JUN AOKI

Born in Yokohama in 1956, Jun Aoki worked for Arata Isozaki & Associates after graduating and completing a masters course at Tokyo University. He established his own firm of architects, Jun Aoki & Associates, in 1991. Since then, he has gained growing acclaim, designing houses, stores for clients such as Louis Vuitton, and winning the competition to design the Aomori Museum of Art.

Please register early to avoid disappointment. We regret to inform that as there are limited seating, seats will be confirmed only upon receipt of confirmation email from JCC. ALL EVENTS ARE FREE OF CHARGE.