Art Collaboration Kyoto

SCAI THE BATHHOUSE and Axel Vervoordt Gallery will jointly present a curated selection of works by five international artists whose engagement with material and abstraction invites the audience to meditate on how one connects given realities with the outside world.

The ceramic work of the Korean artist Lee Ufan foregrounds the notions of gesture, materiality, and tension between the made and the unmade, encouraging deep contemplation on the spatiotemporal relationship between the work, the viewer, and their surroundings. Richly textured topographies of Bosco Sodi's canvases also champion gestural abstraction and the use of chance operation, manifesting the acceptance of the imperfect and the unexpected in Japanese philosophy as well as the aesthetic language of his native Mexico. The peripatetic Korean artist Kimsooja's sculpture and lightbox from the Bottari series, featuring the titular Korean fabric bundle, pose the questions of displacement and life’s essence. Kimsooja's work has a shared ontological sensibility with the patchwork pieces made of recycled umbrella fabric by the Hong Kong-based Jaffa Lam, whose practice is centered around collaboration with local female workers, addressing fundamental inquiries into art-making: namely labor, identity, and collectivity. The Inside paintings by the Japanese artist Atsushi Saga demand slow immersion into their mirror-like surfaces, through which viewers negotiate their own reflections to identify vague geometric patterns underneath.

Kyoto International Conference Center

Takaragaike, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-0001, Japan

VIP Preview: Friday 27 October

Public days: Saturday 28 October — Monday 30 October