SCENE 5 ”exercise”
TAKURO USUI
SHOKO MASUNAGA
Part 1: December 6 (Monday) – December 25 (Saturday), 2021
Part 2: January 17 (Monday) – January 31 (Monday), 2022
*Please note that during the period between part 1 and part 2, some of the works will be taken down for the New Year holidays, but the exhibition will remain open.
Time & Style Midtown is pleased to present the SCENE 5 “exercise” exhibition featuring two artists, Takuro Usui and Shoko Masunaga.
This exhibition “SCENE” is a series of exhibitions that began to take on the characteristics of Time & Style as a unique interior design shop and create an exhibition that focuses on the shop as a whole. This exhibition is the fifth in the series, which started to create a scene (SCENE) for the artists to come into contact with the shop and its customers.
In SCENE 5 “exercise,” based on the purpose of “SCENE,” we will focus on the “product display” to propose and introduce the products. The exhibition was designed to allow visitors to experience the difference between a “display exhibition” and an “art exhibition.”
In the interior shop, where people and products are constantly changing, and the display environment is continuously moving, the two artists have taken on the atmosphere of the shop and the products more flexibly, and based on their own experience and senses as artists, they have created an exhibition in which you can experience their approach to display.
*exercise: a variety of practices that use the head and body. It implies the consolidation and development of current skills, wisdom, and techniques.
Takuro Usui’s work is a series of installations and videos that use the shapes and patterns of familiar everyday objects, the environment, and the materials that make up the situation. Usui’s work is based on the artist’s awareness of the changes and discomforts that can occur from the minimal processing and experimentation of everyday objects.
The work of Shoko Masunaga is based on the artist’s subjective perception of the environment in which her work is created and on certain rules of painting and sculpture. The result may be a repetitive pattern or shape or a borrowed outline from the environment, but it is always an extension of the artist’s sensory act of drawing.
Although the two artists’ approaches to expression are different, they share a common denominator in that their work develops in various ways in response to the environment.
In the context of this exhibition, we invite you to discover the characteristics and differences between the two artists and their interaction with Time & Style’s products.
The exhibition will be constantly fine-tuned, and the works will be replaced according to the situation to comply with the purpose of the exhibition.
TAKURO USUI
1981 Born in Gifu, Japan
2009 Doctorate of Fine Arts, Oil Painting Department, Tokyo University of the Arts
2006 “UPDATED” / A-things, Tokyo
2007 “KINCO – The Underground Vault Exhibition” / Bank of Japan, Tokyo
2008 “Art Fair Tokyo 2008” / Masato Akimoto, Takuro Usui/ Tokyo International Forum, Tokyo
2009 “Doctoral Program Final Exhibition” / The University Art Museum, Tokyo University of the Arts, Tokyo
2009 “DESKTOP ARCHIVER” / A-things, Tokyo
2012 “Mapping” / A-things, Tokyo
2012 “Tactile Sensation of Conduct/ Repetitive Thinking” / Takuro Ishii, Takuro Usui, Kenta Konno, Hidetada Karasuyama, Michi Suwa/ The Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo
2015 “Three Desks” / Masato Akimoto, Takuro Usui, Shoko Masunaga /Art Center Ongoing, Tokyo
2016 “Tokoname Field Trip 2016” / TOKONAME STUDIO, Aichi
2019 “DAINAGOYA DEN-NO HAKURANKAI” / Civic Art Gallery Yada, Aichi
SHOKO MASUNAGA
1980 Born in Osaka, Japan
2001 Graduated from Seian Zokei Junior College ( Painting ) , Kyoto
2018-2019 The Japanese Government Overseas Study Program for Artists, Japan
2013 “Line / Color” / ART TRACE Gallery, Tokyo
2014 “Medium Conditions” Yuta Hayakawa, Kazuo Yoshida, Shoko Masunaga / HAGISO, Tokyo
2015 “Three desks” Takuro Usui, Masato Akimoto, Shoko Masunaga/ ArtCenter Ongoing, Tokyo
2015 “Abstract Butter at HAGISO” / HAGISO, Tokyo
2015 “This is what in the mailbox” Takero Kano, Izumi Suzuki, Shoko Masunaga / IONIO&ETNA, Tokyo
2016 “Platform” / LOOP HOLE, Tokyo
2016 “RURAN TADD PADAN-PADAN” / Gallery yolcha, Osaka
2017 “VOCA(The vision of contemporary art)” / The Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo
2018 “CRITERIUM 93 Shoko Masunaga” / Gallery 9, Contemporary Art Gallery, Art Tower Mito, Ibaraki
2019 “Behind the Seen” / NARS Foundation, Brooklyn, New York
2019 “Box, Box, Box” / Cooler Gallery, Brooklyn, New York
2020 “Ordinary objects” Alex Dodge, Shoko Masunaga, Ryosuke Ogino, Fuminao Suenaga / Maki Fine Arts, Tokyo
2021 “Face Up” Satoshi Uchiyama, Hideyo Ohtsuki, Akira Kawasaki, Yasuo Tanaka, Shoko Masunaga, Yusuke Mitsufuji / Somewhere, Tokyo
2021 “replace” / LOKO GALLERY, Tokyo
Tokyo Midtown Galleria 3F, 9-7-4 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo
11 am – 8 pm
*Friday, December 31, 11 am – 7 pm, Closed January 1 (Saturday)
Tel +81(0)3-5413-3501