PAST EXHIBITION

Kosuke Kawamura Solo Exhibition 2020

Date

2.22.Sat – 3.8.Sun
Closed on Sunday,Monday
except last Sunday

Open

12:00-19:00

Opening Reception

2.21.Fri 18:00-21:00

Venue

http://calmandpunk.com/visit/

CALM & PUNK GALLERY is pleased to present a solo exhibition by the collagist and graphic designer, Kosuke Kawamura. Opening on Saturday February 22nd, the exhibition offers an intimate look at the Tokyo-based artist heralded for his contributions to the premiere street culture event ComplexCon Long Beach, as well as his recent collaboration with Katsuhiro Otomo (of AKIRA fame) presented at Shibuya PARCO, and a tenure as creative director of Rakuten Fashion Week Tokyo.

Although Kawamura has garnered particular acclaim for his collages, his early work was informed by an admiration for graphic design as a mirror of the music and fashions that shaped his identity as a young artist. Moonlighting as a book and flyer designer, the clubs and live music venues where he whiled away his early 20s would ultimately provide a cohort of like-minded artists and future collaborators. Yet all the while, Kawamura was developing his unique approach to collage as an anachronistic outlet for his aptitude in graphic design. As a self-taught collagist, his oeuvre defies definition. The fruit of an insatiable curiosity and pure creative impetus, it wasn’t until much later – and the overwhelmingly positive feedback of his peers – that Kawamura truly awoke to the power of collage.

Spurred by this unconventional start, Kawamura made a splash with his contributions to the Katsuhiro Otomo Genga exhibition, held in 2012. Over the intervening years, his work has undergone a number of dramatic evolutions. As exemplified by his first monograph 2ND (2012) and ranging to his recent masterpiece, Shredder Collage, Kawamura’s series have demonstrated a preternatural acuity for deftly oscillating between traditional collage (as the layered interpretation of vast source material) juxtaposed with more detailed studies of a single theme. His focus on paper shredders is perhaps a particularly apt case in point. As an object, the paper shredder’s very existence is predicated on random chance, dismantling source material into a variegated cascade of constituent segments. To grab a handful of shredded scraps is to commune with the caprice of coincidence. One can’t help but draw a metaphor between this element of spontaneity, and the series of “coincidences” that have steered Kawamura’s own recombinant fate as an artist.

Veritably overrun by Kawamura’s indefatigable pursuit of the ultimate pinnacle in collage, CALM & PUNK’s Nishi Azabu gallery will feature a spectacular installation from the Shredder Collage series. Measuring over three meters in length, the installation is Kawamura’s most ambitious work to date. The exhibition will also feature a further selection of large-scale, brand-new collages, all assembled in 2020.

Join us in celebrating the dissonant dialogue between man and machine: the infinite destructive potential of the paper shredder, and the infinite creative potential of one of Japan’s most promising collage artists.

Kosuke Kawamura
Born 1979, Hiroshima. Currently resides in Tokyo. Collage artist, graphic designer, art director.
Kawamura’s multidisciplinary practice runs the gamut from book cover design (for musician/author/actor Masaya Nakahara), to art direction (such as an anthology by leading pop artist Keiichi Tanaami), and creative direction, providing the key visuals for the Katsuhiro Otomo Genga exhibition, LUMINE MENS×EVANGELION TYPE BLUE event, and much more. 

Notably, Kawamura collaborated with Otomo on Inside Babel, held in the collection of the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam. Having exhibited widely both intentionally and within Japan, in 2019 Kawamura achieved the distinct honor of co-headlining an exhibition at the newly reopened Shibuya PARCO shopping mecca, titled AKIRA ART OF WALL Katsuhiro Otomo × Kosuke Kawamura AKIRA ART EXHIBITION.

http://www.studiozaide.com/
https://kosukekawamurabbit.tumblr.com/
https://www.instagram.com/kosukekawamura/