Past Exhibition

“shiseido art egg 13” Exhibition

“shiseido art egg 13” Exhibition Announcement

The world that surrounds us today faces instability as never before, with many issues ahead. What role can art play in such a world?

This year, Shiseido set its new corporate mission, “BEAUTY INNOVATIONS FOR A BETTER WORLD.” Beautiful encounters and experiences through art may serve as a guide for our lifestyle or manner of thinking which, if only a small part of everyday life, can lead to innovations that change our actions. Is it not our actions that make today’s world better and more beautiful?

Since its opening in 1919, Shiseido Gallery has been providing beautiful encounters and experiences through art under the ideal of “discovering and creating new value.”

In 2006, the Gallery started “shiseido art egg,” an open program that aims at supporting the discovery and creation of new values by fresh, rising artists. Selected artists are provided the opportunity to organize their exhibitions in collaboration with curators, similar to normal exhibitions held at the Shiseido Gallery.

This year’s 13th shiseido art egg exhibition received 269 applications from across Japan. Among the many creative proposals to take advantage of Shiseido Gallery’s distinctive exhibition space, artists Fumi Imamura, Kiyono Kobayashi, and Kaori Endo were selected for their unique perspectives and expressions of new values and aesthetics in today’s world.

Solo exhibitions of these three selected artists will be held at the Shiseido Gallery in succession from Friday, July 5 to Sunday, September 22, 2019. We hope you look forward to the exhibitions of these three up-and-coming artists.

This year’s jury for the shiseido art egg prize* comprises graphic designer Tatsuya Ariyama, art producer and RealTokyo director Chie Sumiyoshi, and artist-printmaker Kouseki Ono.

* Conferred to artwork among the exhibitions of the three selected artists that challenges Shiseido Gallery’s distinctive space and creates maximum new values. The winner will be announced in October 2019 on the Shiseido Gallery website.

■ Fumi Imamura Exhibition
Duration: July 5 (Fri) — July 28 (Sun), 2019

Fumi Imamura

“Peony, Leaf Beetle, Lyreflower” 2018
“Peony, Leaf Beetle, Lyreflower” 2018
Watercolor and collage on paper

“Pond Without Water” (section) 2018
“Pond Without Water” (section) 2018
Watercolor and Sumi ink on paper
Photo: Mina Ino

Imamura perceives spirituality in small flowers and insects in nature and creates images of plants and animals. The installation consists of her unique drawings that form a world surrounded with life. Multiple images of abstract nature blend with each other in the gallery space, allowing visitors to experience an imaginative natural world with a unique sense of reality.

1982: Born in Aichi Prefecture
2008: Completed Oil Painting Course (Painting Major), Research Department of Fine Art and Craft, Kanazawa College of Art
Currently lives in Aichi Prefecture
Main activities
2015: “Between Botany and Art” (Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art)
2016: Participated in Aichi Triennale 2016

■ Kiyono Kobayashi Exhibition
Duration: August 2 (Fri) — August 25 (Sun), 2019

Kiyono Kobayashi

“Polyphony 1945” (section) 2017 Mixed media
“Polyphony 1945” (section) 2017
Mixed media

“Polyphony 1945” (section) 2017 Score, First Draft, Aug-Sep 1945
“Polyphony 1945” (section) 2017
Score, First Draft, Aug-Sep 1945

Kobayashi is interested in words written or spoken by human beings, and presents artworks that question the relationships between individuals and society. Based on letters written by women who had just graduated from girls’ school during the war in 1945, she constructs a sound installation that combines the voices of multiple people who read the letters aloud. The effects of speech recall the lives of people from the past.

1982: Born in Ehime Prefecture
2005: Graduated from Cinema Department, Nihon University College of Art
Currently lives in Tokyo
Main activities
2017: Participated in Nakanojo Biennale 2017
2018: Participated in TERATOTERA Festival 2018; theme: “Walls that separate us”

■ Kaori Endo Exhibition
Duration: August 30 (Fri) — September 22 (Sun), 2019

Kaori Endo

“Waste” 2018 Rag, visual
“Waste” 2018
Rag, Video

“Thanks, Jim Thompson” 2018 Thai silk cloth, silk thread
“Thanks, Jim Thompson” 2018
Thai silk cloth, silk thread

Endo perceives textiles as “weaving different elements” and weaves actions of reconsidering complex modern society and lives into the textile’s texture. With textiles nurtured by people in Okinawa and Asia as the starting point, she will propose to the visitors multi–layered perspectives that open up the possibilities of crafts rooted in today’s life.

1989: Born in Osaka
2013: Graduated from Dyeing Course (Crafts Major), Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts
2016: Graduated from Ars Shimura organized by Fukumi Shimura (pongee weaver; holder of important intangible cultural properties)
Currently lives in Hanoi and Osaka
Main activities
2017: Participated in “Chronicle, Chronicle!” at Creative Center OSAKA (CCO)
2019: Presented works in “VOCA 2019: The Vision of Contemporary Art” at Ueno Royal Museum

■ Exhibition Details for “shiseido art egg 13” Exhibition

Organizer: Art & Heritage Department, Social Value Creation Division, Shiseido Company, Limited
Duration:
Fumi Imamura Exhibition July 5 (Fri) — July 28 (Sun), 2019
Kiyono Kobayashi Exhibition August 2 (Fri) — August 25 (Sun), 2019
Kaori Endo Exhibition August 30 (Fri) — September 22 (Sun), 2019
Venue: Shiseido Gallery
Tokyo Ginza Shiseido Building B1F
8-8-3, Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0061
Tel: 03-3572-3901; Fax: 03-3572-3951
Weekdays: 11:00 AM—7:00 PM
Sundays and national holidays: 11:00 AM—6:00 PM
Closed: Mondays (including national holidays falling on Monday)
Free admission