Arts
Thu Feb 22,2018 4:00 am

Exhibition Announcement / traditional contemporary by shun kawakami at Phaédo Gallery, Shanghai

artless Inc.

A solo exhibition by Shun Kawakami, representative of branding agency artless Inc. and artist / art director, will be on show at the Phaédo Gallery in Shanghai from March 16, 2018. Shun Kawakami is an award-winning art director with a deep understanding of global art and design trends. Last December, he was invited to be the headline artist at Salon des Beaux Arts at the Louvre and received the Médaille d’Or for his installation work. Please look forward to his latest exhibition in Shanghai.

traditional contemporary
by shun kawakami

date: 2018.3.16 fri - 4.7 sat
venue: Phaédo Gallery
hours: 13:00 - 19:00 (tues - sun) closed on mondays / reservations only
address: No.129-1, WuKang Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai, China


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A solo exhibition “traditional contemporary” by Shun Kawakami, artist / art director of a branding agency artless Inc., will be on show at Phaédo Gallery in Shanghai.

Kawakami is an award-winning art director with a deep understanding of global art and design trends. His professional expertise allows him to focus and practice expressing the fundamentals of traditional Japanese aesthetics, with inspirations from classic Japanese arts. On the contrary, the production methods taken are rather contemporary. It involves making graphic collages from photographs, drawings and digitized visuals, such as scanned images. These digitally created graphics are printed on traditionally hand-crafted papers, such as gold and silver foil papers, created by artisans from Kanazawa. By adopting these delicately made papers, the elements of ‘wabi-sabi’ are expressed – through the nonartificial blurring of the ink and the degradation of the finished artworks over time – in order to pursue ‘unintended expressions in prints’.

Kawakami’s digital collages, interactive-artworks, and multimedia installations are sublime experiences in zen poetry that confidently push the boundaries of their media. Kawakami recently received the Salon des Beaux Arts, Carrousel du Louvre, Médaille d’Or for his 2017 installation at The Louvre. Kawakami’s projects are supported and produced by artless Inc., a branding agency that he founded in 2001. Under his guidance, artless Inc. has grown into one of Tokyo’s most highly awarded firms, with clients ranging from Four Seasons Hotel to Issey Miyake. Together with his team, Kawakami works to develop and promote a new vision for modern Japanese aesthetics.

Kawakami is an art director and artist who expresses the fundamentals of traditional Japanese aesthetics in a contemporary context. At Phaédo Gallery, we proudly present “tradional contemporary” – an art exhibition that embraces Japanese traditional aesthetics using technologies combined with design.


shun kawakami
http://www.shunkawakami.jp
Born in Fukagawa, Tokyo in 1977. Shun Kawakami transverses art and design, exploring a recursion to “Japanese aesthetics” found in Azuchi-Momoyama period “suibokuga”(ink wash painting), “shouhekiga”(partition painting), tea ceremony, ikebana, bonsai, gardening, architecture, as well as the notions of margins, “ma”(empty space), and “mitate”(juxtapositions); while pursuing beauty born from a synthesis of tradition and a global sensibility. While active as an artist, he is also a representative of artless Inc., conducting art direction in a wide range of fields.
He has received numerous awards both locally and abroad, including one of the world’s top three advertisement awards, the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, as well as NY ADC, One Show, D&AD, and iF : International Forum Design Hanover. He has been invited to numerous conferences, exhibitions, and festivals across the globe, and has exhibited works at the Centre Pompidou, les Arts Décoratifs du Louvre, Kuala Lumpur National Museum of Arts, Milano Salone, TENT LONDON, DMY, BODW, Singapore Design Festival, and Shanghai Design Biennale. Last December, he was invited to be the headline artist at Salon des Beaux Arts, an event organized by the Société nationale des beaux-arts, held every year at the Louvre museum. Shun Kawakami has received wide acclaim both as an artist and as the creative director of artless Inc.

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Press release PDF download:
http://www.artless.co.jp/press-release/180219/press-release-180219.pdf

Press kit dowload:
http://www.artless.co.jp/press-release/180219/press-kit-180219.zip

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Please contact artless PR representative Yuri for any inquiries.
email : yuri@artless.co.jp
tel : +81(0)3-6434-1345