Venue: YOD Gallery (Tennoz, Tokyo)

3F TERRADA ART COMPLEXⅡ 1-32-8 Higashi-Shinagawa, Shinagawa-ku,Tokyo

Opening hours: 12:00-19:00

Closing date: Sundays & Mondays
Opening party: January 11 2025 (Sat.), from 17:00

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 YOD Gallery (Tennoz, Tokyo) will host the solo exhibition Crystallization by Hiroshi Shinno from 11th Jan (Sat.) to 15th Mar (Sat.), 2025.

 

 Shinno graduated from the Department of Western Painting at Kyoto University of the Arts and later moved to Austria, where he earned a Master's degree from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. He currently works from his studio in the mountainous, nature-rich area of southern Kyoto. This exhibition marks Shinno's first major solo exhibition in Tokyo.

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 Shinno began creating art out of a deep curiosity to understand how living organisms form their bodies and the principles of nature. His work is inspired by daily observations of nature, and he continues to create based on this. The process begins with collecting natural objects, followed by molding and casting in resin to reconstruct "living beings" that differ from the original organisms. These created "beings" are not merely fictional creatures but are explorations of the universal forms produced by nature, an effort to reveal the fundamental shapes of life through dialogue with nature. The resulting forms, which are condensed and shaped by nature, not only reflect the localities from which they were collected but also carry with them memories that human hands cannot replicate, evoking a sense of life that is both mysterious and palpable.

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 The title of this exhibition, Crystallization, refers to the process of crystallization or materialization. It describes the way atoms and molecules arrange themselves in a regular, periodic pattern to form a solid crystal. Just as water, the precursor to snow, changes its form between gas, liquid, and solid, our own traits are in a constant state of flux. In the cycle of life, the death of one life forms the nourishment for new life, and as it transforms into another form, it continues to circulate across the Earth. This cyclical system reveals a connection that binds all living beings and phenomena.

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 The works created by Shinno, through his observation of nature and his discovery of mysterious commonalities within it, can be seen as "crystals" that condense the lives that once existed in specific times and places.

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 This exhibition is composed of approximately 17 works, including the large-scale piece Puzzle of Evolution, which combines animal bones molded and cast in resin into a structure resembling a snowflake, along with other previously unreleased works. Within the exhibition space, where natural elements are presented in different forms, visitors will experience the beauty of natural shapes and the interconnected cycle of life, transcending birth and death. We invite you to view the exhibition and experience it for yourself.

 

Artist Statement:

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 I was given skeletal specimens of a monkey and a badger. I was intrigued by the shape of the animal spines, so I disassembled the vertebrae and laid them out on the table. When arranged in a circle and radiated outward, they formed a hexagonal shape. It resembled a snowflake.

 In nature, there are strangely similar shapes: the hexagonal snowflake, the six-legged insect, the shape of a beehive, the rosette of plants spreading radially, the structure of genes and viruses.

 I felt that everything has the potential to take any form. And through this, I sensed the connection of all things in the universe.

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