|
Laurence Miller
Gallery is pleased to present Reclamation,
the Gallery’s sixth exhibition of photographs by Japanese artist
Toshio Shibata. In a departure from his
earlier series of landscapes printed in black and white, Reclamation
features ten recent large-scale works, all made in color and all
taken in Japan. The title of the show reflects the Japanese desire to maintain
harmony with nature: although man imposes his structures on the land,
nature is encouraged to proliferate over the structures and reclaim
its ultimate authority.
This new work becomes a bridge between minimal abstraction and the
traditional romantic landscape. In Takane
Village
,
Gifu Prefecture, Japan
2003, a lush, wooded mountainside is transformed by a large, white
structure as sturdy as a Sol Lewitt sculpture, yet as delicate as an
insect’s wing. In
another view, a river gently flowing over a dam becomes a Rothko-like
colorfield abstraction, green against white against brown.
Despite the heightened realism of color photography, Shibata
has been successful in maintaining a strong sense of abstraction and
mystery.
Since 1971,
Toshio Shibata
(born 1949) has exhibited his photographs internationally. He has had
one person shows at the
Museum
of
Contemporary Art,
Chicago; the Sprengel Museum, Hanover; the Centre National de la
Photographie,
Paris; the Cleveland Museum of Art; the Art Institute of Chicago; and the
Kawasaki City Museum, Japan. He has been widely collected, and has
many books published on his work, including View: Visions of Japan,
Landscape, Terra, and Dam.
He presently lives and works in Tokyo,
Japan.
|
