Contemplative Nature

On Friday the 3rd of October 2014 “Contemplative Nature”, Anise Gallery’s October exhibition, opened its doors to showcase, for the first time outside Japan, the works of established Japanese artists Shigetomo and Setsuko Suzuki.

Picking up from the Gallery’s own architectural ethos, “Contemplative Nature” explored the relationship of both artists with the world, from two contrasting points of view.

Shigetomo and Setsuko Suzuki began their career nearly forty years ago after having trained at the prestigious Tokyo University of Arts.

As many young artists, they looked for their own voice by exploring the works of those who preceded them. They looked to the techniques and approaches of traditional Japanese art whilst witnessing the unfolding changes in the world that surrounded them and the work of their peers.

Although their methodology references traditional Japanese paint mixing techniques they have adapted these to suit their more contemporary language." (Extract from the Press release that followed the Private View, Images below )

COLLABORATION

On this occasion, Atelier EURA collaborated with Anise gallery and the artists in the curation of the works and display as well as in the designs of posters and writing of press releases specific directed to the Japanese community.

The concept for the exhibition was "Contemplative nature", playing with both the nature of the artists as contemplative people and the paintings as reflections/contemplation of nature: The cyclical nature of nature based on the "nurse log" in Shigetomo's work and the inner nature in Setsuko's.

The curation process was therefore driven into creating two distinct areas , one per artist with locations where their work could converge.

The greenery throughout the exhibition space aimed at emphasising the sensory experience by introducing an element that the visitors would inadvertently interact with as they moved from painting to painting.

The smells emerging from herbs and the sounds from the heather alerted the visitors and drifted from paintings to reality.

GRAPHICS

The Japanese community in London were specifically targeted through the use of press releases and posters and hence the visual language we used was very much in line with Japanese taste.

The visual language of poster design in Japan is something that atelier EURA are very familiar with, hence the collaboration with Anise Gallery focused on tailoring their work to suit the audience.