Crossing, Kotaro Nukaga Gallery, Tokyo, Japan — Curated by Keita Morimoto

“From November 26 (Sat) 2022 to January 28 (Sat) 2023, KOTARO NUKAGA, Roppongi is pleased to present ‘Crossing,’ a group show organized by the artist Keita Morimoto. The exhibition will showcase the work of nine emerging talents who are currently garnering international attention. Morimoto, who studied art in Canada and recently returned to pursue an artistic career in Japan, realized this project by calling upon the artists he met during his time in North America— artists of diverse racial and cultural backgrounds, genders, and sexualities. The exhibited works come in a widerange of styles, media, and techniques, as if reflecting the diversity of the artists themselves. Despite such differences, all nine artists share a common thread: using their own hands to depict the age in which they live while drawing liberally from both Eastern and Western art historical canon.

“…Japanese Canadian artist Alexa Hatanaka engages with materials and techniques used in traditional Japanese crafts, such as natural dyeing and papermaking, that are closely tied to the routines of daily life. Hatanaka recreates the customs, clothing, and everyday items of her Japanese heritage and elevates them to the realm of fine art. One of the exhibited works, “Yoshitaka Boiler Suits,” employs gyotaku (Japanese fish prints) to encapsulate the intimate relationship her fisherman grandfather formed with the sea. On the other hand, “Looks Like Water,” a linocut relief print, depicts the ripples that emerge in the snowy lands of the Arctic Circle. In this work, Hatanaka overlays the snow’s wave-like pattern with the ocean her grandfather once gazed upon, as well as the fate of the snow itself, which will eventually become seawater due to the effects of climate change.” - Kotaro Nukaga Gallery, Roppongi, Tokyo, Japan

Artists: Dominique Fung, Alexa Hatanaka, Stephanie Hier, Leelee Kimmel, Heidi Lau, Larry Madrigal, Esmaa Mohamoud, Devan Shimoyama, Morimoto Keita