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Lolo & Sosaku, Untitled_1.177.1, 2024, Inkjet photography,  70 x 29 inches /178 x 74 cm

Topos Logos poses the question: how can we reinterpret the fundamental human impulse to convey as traces? The perspective comes from Shimomura's analysis of calligraphy. Calligraphy reflects the historical practice of inscribing characters and expresses our traces through writing, drawing, scratching, and carving. This concept also applies to other categories, as Nana Shimomura's work transforms written elements into movements and sounds, expanding the definitions of writing, music-making, and carving. Lolo & Sosaku use machines and sounds to explore the boundaries of matter from various angles. Their installation continuously creates reverberations through simple movements, shifting perspectives of time and space. Yuuki Horiuchi engages with various materials and media, focusing on themes of time and chance. The traces in her ceramics and drawings immerse viewers in the interactions with materials. Rui Hara, a musicologist specializing in 20th-century music, co-curates the exhibition. By arranging works like a constellation of markings, the exhibition uncovers the underlying strata of all expressions, dissolving traditional concepts of technique, culture, and art forms.

Curator: Nana Shimomura

Co-Curator: Rui Hara

General opening hours

Wednesday - Saturday, 12:00 pm to 6:00 pm, and by appointment.

Location

424 Broadway #601, New York NY 10013          *It is a summer pop-up project, so we don't have a gallery name.

Press Contacts

Nana Shimomura

info(at)nanashimomura.com

or https://www.nanashimomura.com/contact

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Nana Shimomura (b. 1990 in Fukuoka, Japan; based in New York, USA)  

Nana Shimomura is a multidisciplinary artist who finds new expression from calligraphy by connecting her artistic themes in calligraphy, constellations, and vestiges. Constellations have been an important source of inspiration in her continued exploration for new forms of calligraphic expression.  It challenges traditional perceptions of the art form through channeling the pure, primal creative impulse of sign. After being based in Tokyo, she resided in Barcelona on a 2022-23 grant from the Pola Art Foundation, and is currently staying in New York on a grant from the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan. She has exhibited widely, including at Roppongi Art Night (Tokyo, Japan), Beyond the Paint (Sotheby’s Institute of Art, New York, US), and 18 (Blanc Gallery, New York, US), and has received awards such as the Gunma Biennale Encouragement Award (Gunma, Japan) and the Tokyo Midtown Award (Tokyo, Japan). She has participated in public dialogue events such as Today Is Tàpies (Antoni Tàpies Foundation, Barcelona, Spain) and has been a resident at Hangar (Barcelona, Spain) and Residency Unlimited (New York, US). Until 2022, she worked as an assistant at Tokyo University of the Arts, and she is currently an intern at the Reversible Destiny Foundation.

https://www.nanashimomura.com/

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Lolo & Sosaku (b. 1977 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. b. 1976 in Tokyo, Japan; based in Barcelona, Spain)

"Our work happens on the edges, pushes them, blurs them, questions them.” Lolo & Sosaku investigate the possibilities of sculpture as an expanded field. The nexus that unites their work is the quest for an object in contact with its surroundings and with the spectator, an object that seeks friction and tension, exploring the capacity of creating new meanings.  Their work moves between different artistic languages such as sculpture, installation, kinetic art and painting, often incorporating music and sound. Shapes, lines, materials, and sounds are assembled together into motion sculptures that present their own voice in an unpredictable continuous transformation. Exploring many artistic horizons and redefining boundaries, their interest is the energy and the hidden forces that guide life in our technological age. Their work has been exhibited and performed at such venues as the Museo Reina Sofia (Madrid, Spain), Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain), Power Station of Art (Shanghai, China), Museu da Imagem e do Som (São Paulo, Brazil), Sónar (Barcelona, Spain), Matadero (Madrid, Spain), Night Time Story (Los Angeles, USA), Palace of Culture (Iasi, Romania), Museum of Art and History (Geneva, Switzerland), Double Square Gallery (Taipei, Taiwan).

http://www.loloysosaku.com/

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Yuuki Horiuchi  (b 1990 in Nara, Japan; based in London, UK)

Under the themes of time, existence, and contradiction, Horiuchi makes a wide variety of artwork, including installations, 16 mm films with multiple exposures, ceramics, paintings, and drawings. Attempting to find intersections between different times and spaces, her artwork connects coincidental elements and explores meaning by juxtaposing aspects, as did ancient people who created constellations by superimposing images upon countless stars. She aims to show how our lives are connected with nature, history, society, and the universe. Horiuchi completed her MFA in Sculpture at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London in 2023. She was awarded the Sarabande Emerging Artist Grant, as well as grants from the Pola Art Foundation. Additionally, she completed her BFA in oil painting at Tokyo University of the Arts, Japan, in 2015. Her major solo exhibitions include Quantum Teleportation (Komagome SOKO, Tokyo, 2023), and she had participated in such major group shows in various countries as “Beyond the Paint” (Sotheby's Institute of Art, New York, 2023), “See the Light” (Hagiwara Projects, Tokyo, 2022). She is having her solo exhibition “Q’s Journey”(Towada Art Center, Aomori, Japan) upcoming September to December 2024.

https://yuukihoriuchi.com/index.html 

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Rui Hara (b. 1989 in Miyagi, Japan; based in Tokyo, Japan)

Rui Hara is a lecturer at the Kyoto University of the Arts and a visiting scholar at CUNY. He received his doctorate from Kyoto University with a dissertation on the Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu. His first monograph, The Piano Works of Toru Takemitsu, was published by ARTES Publishing in 2022. He also contributed to Reading Books on Sound: A Guide to Writing on Sound and Art, published by Nakanishiya in 2024. He has published articles and made presentations on postwar Japanese composers such as Toshi Ichiyanagi, Somei Sato, Sesshu Kai and Jo Kondo. Currently he is researching the activities of the Japanese composer/performer Takehisa Kosugi, who collaborated with John Cage, Merce Cunningham, and many other experimental artists in the United States. 

SUPPORT

This exhibition is supported by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan. The Agency for Cultural Affairs has supported the overseas training of emerging artists since 1967, aiming to develop cultural and artistic talents in Japan. The "Program of Overseas Study for Upcoming Artists" includes fine arts, music, dance, drama, film, stage art, and media arts. This program provides young artists with opportunities to engage in practical training at foreign arts organizations and theaters.