Summer Holidays 8.11 - 16

Maki Fine Arts is pleased to present Coyote, a solo show by Yoshio Shirakawa, starting Saturday, July 1, 2017.

Born 1948 in Fukuoka, Japan, Shirakawa studied philosophy and art in Germany in the 70s and received his MFA from Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in 1981. He has been based in Gunma since returning to Japan in 1983.

Shirakawa's recent shows include Contemporary Art in Gunma 2017--Where contemporary art belongs in the community (Museum of Modern Art, Gunma, 2017), Creative Dialogue with Museum 01--MONUMENT (Tottori Prefecture Museum, 2017), Aichi Triennale 2016--A Rainbow Caravan (2016), and solo shows
The Capital Room: Beyond Three Dimensional Logical Pictures--vol. 7 (gallery αM, 2016), Sliding Railroad (former-Tokorozawa Meal Center, 2015), and dada, dada, da (Arts Maebashi, 2014). He has authored several publications including daDa in Japan 1920 - 1970 (1988/2005, Suiseisha), Bijyutsu, shijyo, chiikitsuka wo megutte [On art, market, and regional currency] (Suiseisha, 2001), Seiyobijyutsushi wo kaitai suru [Breaking down the history of western art) (Suiseisha, 2011), and Matters of Sculpture (topofil, 2017).

In his first solo show at Maki Fine Arts, Shirakawa will showcase new works from his 2016 - 2017 Coyote series featuring assemblages made from repurposed waste material and canvas. The sculptural collages in the series demonstrate an airy sense of color with carefully-balanced placement of material. In last year's Artnet News article, Brian Boucher described Shirakawa's works as "simply beautiful, modest, modernist abstraction."

--------------------------------------

The Running of the Cayote
Yoshio Shirakawa

Wild coyotes are close to joining the status of endangered species. Coyotes are smaller than wolves and travel through woods and forests alone or in packs. Their habitat includes deep woods brimming with firs and ferns, a world overflowing with the full range of the color green. There, while conscious of the differences among the limitless colors, the cayote moves on. It runs at will, moving side to side, up and down, forward and backward through an energy-filled field that sways from gushing colors and shapes. It is that wild sensitivity--the bodily sensation felt by the coyote--that I want to draw out, so I can run into the fields as well. According to Native American mythology, a cayote is a spiritual animal who is responsible for bringing culture to humankind. When running through the woodlands, the coyote crisscrosses through fields of color, shape, material, space, and time. I yearn for their guidance and want to inherit that power of wisdom they utilize when they dash through the terrain. As a descendant of the indigenous people of Asia, I like to think that I too possess the wisdom for life the Native Americans received from the coyote. When I begin to believe that fantasy, the cayote starts to lead me, and I begin to run.